At the beginning of Joe Shere’s career, he worked as a darkroom printer and apprentice worker until he enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps to become the Chief of the Photo Division. Following the end of World War II, he moved to Hollywood to hone in on his craft of photography. As a result, he worked for many publication companies and spent the remainder of his career photographing numerous iconic stars. Before capturing his most famous image of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield in 1957, he took photos of other stars such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Annette Funicello, etc. Many of his subjects were predominantly movie stars, singers, and other influential figures during that time.
Furthermore, most of his work featured these stars at award shows and or notable events, but he also managed to capture their personal lives, with photographs taken in some of their homes. In a way, Shere demonstrated a sense of duality by illustrating that these stars are also human beings and that their lives are not always glitz and glam. By the late 1960s, he worked as a freelance photographer and produced the annual history of the academy awards for the Motion Picture Academy for several years. In general, his career was jump-started due to his move to Hollywood after the war; this allowed him to get exposure for his pieces and work with some of the most influential figures of the decade.