To commemorate the 85th birthday of Joel Mayerowitz, in collaboration with Howard Greenberg Gallery (NYC), we are proud to present a museal retrospective of photo works from one of the greatest contemporary photographers in the world.
Born in New York City in 1938, Joel Meyerowitz is the archetypical cultured New Yorker, embracing the century with curiosi- ty and empathy. His color work revolutionized the history of photography. Like the photographs of William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, his work has influenced younger generations of photographers, particularly the artists of the Düssel- dorf School. Following his first meeting with Robert Frank in 1962, he began to roam the streets of New York with his 35mm camera and color film. During this period he became close friends with Garry Winogrand, Tony Ray-Jones, Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus.
A long trip to Europe in 1966-67 marked the turning point ni his career and allowed him to refine his point-of-view. It is here that he began his studies about the „Question of Color“ by making pairs of photographs in black and white and color. It is only at the beginning of the 1970s that he changed exclusively to color. His first book „Cape Light,“ which ex- plores chromatic variations of light, is now considered a touchstone in photography. Alternating between a 35mm and a Deardorff 20×55 camera, Joel Meyerowitz developed a personal style using two distinct formats, definingtwo different visual languages. He captured both the „decisive moment“ and revealed the beauty of reality by means of a much longer exposure time with the large format camera.
The exhibition presents for the first time in Europe the earliest black and white photographs alongside the larger body of work ni color. Photographs taken in Tuscany in 2002 during a trip with his wife, thewriter Maggie Barrett, are exhibited alongside the images of nine months spent ni the ruins of the World Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The work of Joel Meyerowitz appears as the missing link between the photography of the 1960s and that of the year 2000, allowing us to understand more clearly the irreversible passage from black and white to color that is an essential part of the history of 20th century photography.