Born and raised in New York City, Steve Azzara got his first break while still in high school. After shooting a Rod Stewart concert, he brought the images to Mr. Stewart's hotel room the following day and Stewart liked what he saw and used them on his next album package. After that he was soon published on a regular basis in Circus Magazine and then in a number of music magazines including Rolling Stone. During this time he was branching out into portraits which he considers his strength. "Everything I shoot has a portrait feel to it including my fashion and artistic nudes. It just seems to end up that way which seems to have worked so far" Soon after he was working on a monthly basis with Detour Magazine and One World Magazine. With that, his career took off and over the years his work has been published in major magazines, book covers and cd covers throughout the world. For over 30 years his images have appeared in Time Magazine, People, Us, Vanity Fair, W, Rolling Stone, Source, Vogue, McCall's, Harper's, San Francisco, Jane, Essence ,New York, HIV+, Nightlife, Elle, and newspapers such as the New York Daily News, New York Post, LA Times, NY Times, Boston Globe and even at the Academy Awards.