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Chris Mehigan

In Homage To...

Joel Meyerowitz

Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He was born in New York in 1938. He began photographing in 1962. He is a ââÅstreet photographerâ❠in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, although he works exclusively in color. As an early advocate of color photography (mid-60's), Meyerowitz was instrumental in changing the attitude toward the use of color photography from one of resistance to nearly universal acceptance. His first book, Cape Light, is considered a classic work of color photography and has sold more than 100,000 copies during its 25-year life. He is the author of 14 other books, including Bystander: The History of Street Photography and Tuscany: Inside the Light.

In 1998 he produced and directed his first film, POP, an intimate diary of a three-week road trip he made with his son, Sasha, and his father, Hy. This odyssey has as its central character an unpredictable, street-wise and witty 87 year-old with a failing memory. It is both an open-eyed look at aging and a meditation on the significance of memory.

Within a few days of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Meyerowitz began to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero and the immediate neighborhood. The World Trade Center Archive now numbers more than 8,000 images and will be available for research, exhibition, and publication at museums in New York and Washington, DC.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. State Department asked the Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz to create a special exhibition of images from the archive to send around the world. The images are traveling to more than 200 cities in 60 countries over the next few years. To date over three and a half million people have viewed the exhibition. The purpose of the exhibit is to visually relate the catastrophic destruction of the 9/11 attacks and the physical and human dimensions of the recovery effort.

The Museum and Meyerowitz selected 28 images for the exhibition, which is entitled "After September 11: Images from Ground Zero." The only photographer who was granted unimpeded access to Ground Zero after September 13, 2001, Meyerowitz takes a meditative stance toward the work and workers there, systematically documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation. His color photos, presented in a 30 inch x 40 inch format, succinctly convey the magnitude of the destruction and loss and the heroic nature of the response. The exhibit serves as a stunning reminder to audiences of the true dimensions of the attack and the response.

In addition to the traveling shows, Meyerowitz was invited to represent the United States at the 8th Venice Biennale for Architecture with his photographs from the World Trade Center Archives. In September 2002, he exhibited 73 images ' some as large as 22 feet ' in lower Manhattan. The show that was exhibited in Venice is currently touring the United States.

Meyerowitz is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many others. An archive of works by Meyerowitz can be viewed at www.joelmeyerowitz.com.

Source: Photographer's Web Site