“Photography is about being exquisitely present.” –Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz met Robert Frank in 1962. That chance encounter, serendipity if you like, made all the difference in the life of a young art director and painter. He knew instinctively after witnessing Frank work, that he wanted to be a photographer. That was it. Meyerowitz knew nothing about cameras or photography, but as the course of his life would attest, he was always good with risk.
Thames & Hudson’s Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color takes us back to the beginning. Along with the writer and critic, Robert Shore, Meyerowitz tells us why he started carrying two cameras in 1963: one with black & white film, one with color. Early on, he had tried to reconcile “the question of color” at a time when this question was of significance to the arts community. Today, we seamlessly glide between both worlds. Color photography now has all the importance and gravitas of black & white photography, but there was a time when that was not the case. And it was photographers like Joel Meyerowitz who helped us to question why.
Meyerowitz is one of our master street photographers. At age 85, he continues working, and has enjoyed a remarkable career as an artist and educator–having published 53 books, as well as earning numerous distinctions for his pioneering color work. This latest book from Thames & Hudson puts a fresh spin on Meyerowitz’s oeuvre. The photo pairings of black & white vs. color help us feel the tension between the images. We can then answer our own “question of color.” –Lane Nevares