Joel Meyerowitz, 86, has been snapping pictures of nature, calamities and much more since 1962. He recalls seeing famous photographer Robert Frank shooting a booklet and, that same day, quitting his job as an art director.
“And basically I’ve been out of a job since 1962,” he joked.
Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Celebrated as a pioneer of color photography, he is a two-time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities awards, and a recipient of the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal. He recently sat down with our sister publication, ArtSpeak.
Meyerowitz has published 55 books of photographs. This includes “Cape Light” (1978) and “Aftermath” (2011).
Cape Light is a series of serene and contemplative color photographs taken on Cape Cod. Both influential and popular, the project broke new ground for color photography and allowed for the medium’s acceptance in the art world.
“Aftermath” follows the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Meyerowitz went to the site, but was initially denied access. He had established strong links with many of the firefighters, policemen and construction workers contributing to the clean up, though, so with their assistance, he became the only photographer to be granted unimpeded entry to Ground Zero. “Aftermath” shows the wreckage, demolition, excavation and removal of the debris.
Now, Meyerowitz’s photography is on display at the Nova Southeastern University Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale. The exhibition, “Temporal Aspects,” will run through March 16, 2025.
An East Bronx native, he credits his father, who was an artist, for his sense of imagery in the world at an early age.
“One of things that was a lasting image that probably imprinted itself in my mind like nothing else was . . . ” click here to see the entire interview with Joel Meyerowitz on Artspeak.
