About — THE CAMERAMAN IN CLOGS

MEDIA BIO

Jeff Schwartz spent fifty years behind the camera, filming presidents, celebrities, athletes, and everyday people. His work has taken him from movie sets and Super Bowls to homeless shelters and prison yards. Schwartz is the founder of Primalux Media and the author of The Cameraman in Clogs: Always Rolling.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I never planned to become a cameraman. I was twenty-two with no idea what to do with my life. In 1976, I stumbled into the business just as video was replacing film, and the industry suddenly needed bodies.
Fifty years later, I had filmed five U.S. presidents, worked on movie sets, and covered everything from streetwalkers to Super Bowls. The job carried me across the country and around the world, from the Canadian Rockies to the Australian Outback.
But the work I’m proudest of is twenty-five years of documentaries about everyday people doing extraordinary things: veterans learning to surf with prosthetic legs, prisoners training guide dogs, and doctors making house calls to the homeless. Stories about people the world had stopped seeing.
I started shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs in a cheap black tuxedo.
Later, I built a production company with partners.
After an Achilles injury, the open-backed clogs I wore became my signature. People started calling me “The Cameraman in Clogs.”
In 2025, after fifty years behind the lens, I finally stepped away.
For most of my career, I was more comfortable pointing the camera at other people than talking about myself. Then COVID hit, the shoots slowed down, and for the first time in decades, I stopped moving long enough to look back.
I pulled out old calendars, tapes, and memories I hadn’t thought about in years. One memory led to another.
Eventually, I realized the moments that stayed with me weren’t always the biggest ones. They were the quiet moments before “action,” after “cut,” when people forgot the camera was there.
I live in New York with my wife, close to our daughters and two granddaughters, who taught me you can’t hug someone with a camera between you.

See Jeff's Video Work.

MEDIA BIO

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I never planned to become a cameraman. I was twenty-two with no idea what to do with my life. In 1976, I stumbled into the business just as video was replacing film, and the industry suddenly needed bodies.

Fifty years later, I had filmed five U.S. presidents, worked on movie sets, and covered everything from streetwalkers to Super Bowls. The job carried me across the country and around the world, from the Canadian Rockies to the Australian Outback.

But the work I’m proudest of is twenty-five years of documentaries about everyday people doing extraordinary things: veterans learning to surf with prosthetic legs, prisoners training guide dogs, and doctors making house calls to the homeless. Stories about people the world had stopped seeing.

I started shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs in a cheap black tuxedo.

Later, I built a production company with partners.

After an Achilles injury, the open-backed clogs I wore became my signature. People started calling me “The Cameraman in Clogs.”

In 2025, after fifty years behind the lens, I finally stepped away.

For most of my career, I was more comfortable pointing the camera at other people than talking about myself. Then COVID hit, the shoots slowed down, and for the first time in decades, I stopped moving long enough to look back.

I pulled out old calendars, tapes, and memories I hadn’t thought about in years. One memory led to another.

Eventually, I realized the moments that stayed with me weren’t always the biggest ones. They were the quiet moments before “action,” after “cut,” when people forgot the camera was there.

I live in New York with my wife, close to our daughters and two granddaughters, who taught me you can’t hug someone with a camera between you.

THE CAMERAMAN IN CLOGS - ALWAYS ROLLING