Who is Joel Meyerowitz ?

JOEL MEYEROWITZ

  

Born March 6, 1938. Joel Meyerowitz is a famous street, portrait and landscape photographer. He began photographing in color in 1962 and in the early 1970s he taught the first color course in New York City. Inspired by seeing Robert Frank at work, Meyerowitz quit his job as an art director at an advertising agency and took to the streets of New York City with a 35mm camera and black-and-white film. Meyerowitz photographed the aftermath of the  September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, and was the only photographer allowed unrestricted access to its "ground zero" immediately following the attack.

He is one of the living masters in street photography, he shot in the streets with other legends such as Garry Winogrand, Tony Ray-Jones, and even Henri Cartier-Bresson.What is so influential about Joel Meyerowitz is how he was one of the revolutionizing forces in street photography and color. When he first started to shoot on the streets of NYC with Garry Winogrand, he bobbed and weaved the streets like a boxer– with his Leica and black & white film pushed to ISO 1200– allowing him to shoot at 1/1000th of a second and capture life (the maximum shutter speed of a Leica). However he was curious about color, and would often shoot with two Leica’s on the street– one with black and white and the other with color. I think nowadays the trend in street photography is to try to focus on complex compositions and layers– but sometimes these images are devoid of emotions and feelings.

     “What I want is more of my feelings and less of my thoughts."

Here are some of his famous street photos;

This photograph is of a young girl, the camera is looking through 2 car windows, with the girl in the center of the photo, crying. Showing a man with his hand out to assist the girl that is crying. The colour is in black and white for mood and I think Joel has taken and composoed the photograph very well. He uses an aperture where the girl is in focus and the background behind her is completely blurred. Joel has taken this photo and thought about what he wanted to show.

Here, Joel has took to the streets of New York City and showed us a a lot of confusing signs and people racing amongst the streets. No-one making eye contact, just casually racing in everyday life. He has chosen to use colour, which I think adds to the more confusing photograph. By using colour we can see what it is really like to be there and how chaotic New York City is. For me this is typical New York, which he portrays well.

Here Joel has captured a man in urban fashioned clothing, with his tshirt raised, to show the urban side of the city. The women have also old fashioned, bright clothing to that show the freedom of individuals of the city and culture. I can also see the rule of thirds in this image, the mans face is in the rule of thirds. This helps by automatically during our attention to him, while everything else in the image is not facing us.

Here we can see straight away another street with 4 individuals wearing the same colour coat, a yellowish colour. The smoke the couple are walking through is captured beautifully. Joel has caught the moment when they are about to walk through the smoke, with 4 random strangers in the same colour. He took this at the right moment, the exsposure is perfect for the subjects but on the sides and background of the picture are a little more dark.

Here everybody in the image is looking at the same man who has fallen over. I know he isnt just lying down because of the captured moment where Joel has got everyone on the street looking at the split second the man fell. The colours are very basic and average, this is more about the scene than art. We still can see it is very busy and with cars all flooding past each other. I like how we can see a variety of many different people.

In this photograph, one of Joels more known pictures, we can see that he took the photo in a black and white setting. Capturing a woman in the center of the image, walking towards the photographer. Everyone else is walking away from the photograph so our attention is more prominently on the woman in the center. We see a recurring theme of being busy in the streets, vans, buildings and everyday life.

Conclusion:

As you can see he likes to capture everyday life in the city. A busy place full of strangers, some not even making eye contact. He has a lot going on in his photos, where people are casually walking along the streets of New York or a scene where there are problems or events going on.  He shows some photos in colour and some in black and white. He also likes to capture people and emotions. I think his photographs are untimed though, and are the photos planned but taken without thought. He wants to portray his feelings and the emotions of others. So his photographs definetly make you think. I think he is a good photographer and he inspires me.

“What I want is more of my feelings and less of my thoughts."                  - Joel Meyerowitz