Steve Savage was raised on a farm in Minnesota, and attended Harvard, Oxford and Tufts Universities, earning an A.B. in English, an M.S. in psychology and a C.A.G.S. in 17th century English History and Literature. He became a serious photographer in 1967, when he began teaching at a prep-school in central Pennsylvania. He has traveled widely, photographing literary sites in England (and New England),wildflowers in Greece and temples in Egypt.

In 1972, he founded The Pomegranate Press, a small independent publishing house dedicated to fine graphic illustration and modern American poetry. During his tenure, Pomegranate published the work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Daryl Hine, Michael McClure, Kenneth Rexroth, Richard Eberhart, May Swenson, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Bly, Robert Creely, and many others. In 1974, Savage opened the Terra Graphica Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as an outlet for the work of talented young graphic artists and photographers. Terra Graphica was the first gallery to display the work of photographer Tony Mendoza, as well as many others.

Savage came to San Francisco in 1977 and has worked on assignment for numerous Bay Area publications, including The Bay Guardian, The Bay Area Reporter, and The Sentinel, as well as national magazines such as The Advocate, Christopher Street, and After Dark. With The Advocate, Savage has shot some 15 cover stories over the past 12 years, and has had portfolios of his art-work featured four times. His work has also appeared in Time, People, Rolling Stone, Dance Magazine, Business Week, MS Magazine and The New York Times, and his photographs have appeared on some dozen book-jackets and many CD covers. He was an official photographer for Gay Games I and II.

Since 1980, Savage has specialized in performing arts photography, especially dance. He has worked with many of the leading choreographers of the Bay Area, including Brenda Way, Joanna Haigood, Gary Palmer, Keith Hennessy, Lucas Hoving, Rosa Montoya, and many others. He has also worked extensively with Theatre Rhinoceros, and photographed Men Dancing, the annual festival of male performance art, from its inception in 1980.

Savage has exhibited frequently in San Francisco since 1978. He was a founding participant in Victor Arimondi's Gallery 551, and has participated in numerous group shows all over the city, most recently as part of the city-wide Open Studios program in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2004. He has also had twenty one-man shows in various venues throughout the city, mostly South of Market.

From 1997 to 2002, Savage maintained a photo studio in Berlin, Germany, working with actors and other performers as he does in San Francisco. While in Berlin, he also began studying Middendorf Breathwork, and is now a Certified Middendorf Breath Practitioner. In addition to his busy photographic schedule, Savage teaches a weekly class in The Experience of Breath and maintains a separate website, www.mybreathexperience.com, devoted to this work.