I confess that Roy was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictures, which he stopped doing later. He used to punch a hole through a negative. Some of them were incredibly valuable. He didn't understand at the time.

Shahn’s examination of the status quo inspired his creative process. Similarly Shahn’s New Deal art for the FSA and Resettlement Agency exposed American living and working conditions. Shahn defended his choice to employ pictorial realities rather than abstract forms.

He is best known for his works of social realism his left-wing political views and his series of lectures publiBen Shahnd as The Shape of Content.