Paul George Schutzer was born on July 11, 1930 in Brooklyn, NY to Hyman and Ruth. He attended Cooper Union Art School and the Law School of Long Island University but decided to become a photographer. His interest in photography began at the age of 10. After freelancing he joined Life Magazine in Washington, DC in 1956 as its youngest staff photographer.
In 1958 he was a member of a Life team in Lebanon during the crisis that brought the landing of US troops. In 1959 he was awarded the grand prize, (presented to him by President Eisenhower) first and second prizes and two honorable mentions in the White House News Photographers competition. That same year he also won the News Photographer of the Year award sponsored by the University of Missouri and the Encyclopedia of Britannica, as well as the Best in the Show award in US Camera Magazine's Washington exhibit.
In June 1967 he came to Israel to cover the Six Day War as a photojournalist for Life. Because Moshe Dayan 'owed him a favor', he was allowed on a half-track at the front - a half-track that was hit by enemy fire in Gaza and blown-up on June 5, 1967 - the first day of that war.
Although his life span was tragically short, Paul had seen and photographed much of the world, and much of what he saw appeared in the pages of his magazine: the Berlin Wall, the earthquake in Iran, the Algerian War, Nixon in South America, Kennedy through his campaign onto his funeral, Cuba and Castro, Lebanon, and Vietnam. Schutzer won several national photojournalism awards, including the University of Missouri's News Photographer of the Year Award in 1959 and the George Polk Award for foreign coverage in 1958. He often accepted dangerous assignments. A colleague said Schutzer had “almost too much courage.”\
Paul Shutzer is commemorated in the monument to the Martyrs of Hostilities and Terrorism in Israel on Mount Herzl .
