Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz (born 1938, New York City) is a photographer whose pioneering advocacy for color photography helped transform the field and establish color as a legitimate expressive tool for serious photographic practice. Initially working in advertising before discovering photography through an encounter with Robert Frank, Meyerowitz became one of the leading voices of American street photography. His practice was defined by acute observation and formal intelligence rooted in the energy of New York City and the American landscape.
His large-format work from Cape Cod, gathered in the landmark book Cape Light (1978), demonstrated that color photography could achieve the tonal richness and contemplative quality previously associated only with black and white. His subsequent bodies of work, including his studies of St. Louis’s Gateway Arch and his extensive documentation of the World Trade Center site following September 11, 2001, extended his practice across landscape, architecture, and history with equal formal authority. He has been the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
His work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.