Joel Meyerowitz
Retrospektive
27 Sep 2014 - 11 Jan 2015
Joel Meyerowitz, born 1938 in New York, is, along with William Eggleston and Stephan Shore, one of the most important representatives of the American New Color Photography of the 1960s and 70s.
Following the very first encounter with Robert Frank in 1962, Meyerowitz decided to give up his profession as an art director in New York and devote himself entirely to photography. The images of street scenes, in the U.S. metropoles especially, that he fleetingly captured with his 35mm camera, made him the forerunner of street photography, and his works to icons of contemporary photography.
“WATCHING LIFE WAS ALL ABOUT TIMING.”
One of the first turning points in his photography, came about during a one year trip through Europe in 1966/7 which allowed him to critically question his work.
In 1968 the Museum of Modern Art showed images from this journey in Meyerowitz’s first solo exhibition entitled “From a Moving Car”. His first book “Cape Light” (1978), in which he studies achromatic variations of light on Cape Cod, counts as a milestone in photography. In addition to his 35mm camera, which he carries with him at all times, Meyerowitz has also worked with an 8×10 plate camera since the 1970s which allows him to capture the relationship between object, light and time in a precise fashion.
“TIME IST WHAT PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT.“
The exhibition in the NRW-Forum presents for the first time in Germany, the entire photographic spectrum of 50 years of Meyerowitz’s photography. Apart from the early black and white and colour photography of the 1960s, images from all working projects such as Cape Light, Portraits, Between the Dog and the Wolf and Ground Zero are presented and allow the visitor both a photographic and cultural comparison between Europe and the U.S.A. In addition to this, the first documentary of the life and work of the photographer, which was created during three years in France, Italy and the U.S.A., will be premiered.
Ralph Goertz, head of the IKS, curated and organised this exhibition in close collaboration with the artist.
Following the very first encounter with Robert Frank in 1962, Meyerowitz decided to give up his profession as an art director in New York and devote himself entirely to photography. The images of street scenes, in the U.S. metropoles especially, that he fleetingly captured with his 35mm camera, made him the forerunner of street photography, and his works to icons of contemporary photography.
“WATCHING LIFE WAS ALL ABOUT TIMING.”
One of the first turning points in his photography, came about during a one year trip through Europe in 1966/7 which allowed him to critically question his work.
In 1968 the Museum of Modern Art showed images from this journey in Meyerowitz’s first solo exhibition entitled “From a Moving Car”. His first book “Cape Light” (1978), in which he studies achromatic variations of light on Cape Cod, counts as a milestone in photography. In addition to his 35mm camera, which he carries with him at all times, Meyerowitz has also worked with an 8×10 plate camera since the 1970s which allows him to capture the relationship between object, light and time in a precise fashion.
“TIME IST WHAT PHOTOGRAPHY IS ABOUT.“
The exhibition in the NRW-Forum presents for the first time in Germany, the entire photographic spectrum of 50 years of Meyerowitz’s photography. Apart from the early black and white and colour photography of the 1960s, images from all working projects such as Cape Light, Portraits, Between the Dog and the Wolf and Ground Zero are presented and allow the visitor both a photographic and cultural comparison between Europe and the U.S.A. In addition to this, the first documentary of the life and work of the photographer, which was created during three years in France, Italy and the U.S.A., will be premiered.
Ralph Goertz, head of the IKS, curated and organised this exhibition in close collaboration with the artist.