Joel Meyerowitz
American, b. 1938
Joel Meyerowitz (b. 1938) was born in New York City and began taking photographs in 1962. Although he has always seen himself as a street photographer in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, he transformed the mode with his pioneering use of color.
As an early advocate of color photography (mid-60's), Meyerowitz was instrumental in changing the attitude toward the use of color photography from one of resistance to nearly universal acceptance.
Meyerowitz was the only photographer to be given unimpeded access to Ground Zero in the wake of 9/11. The images he captured have formed the foundation of a major national archive, and an exhibition of selected images has travelled to more than 200 cities in 60 countries.
Among Meyerowitz's first important exhibitions were those at Eastman House, Rochester, in 1966, and "My European Trip" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1968. He represented the United States at the Venice Biennale for Architecture in 2002.
He is a two time Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of both National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities awards and a recipient of The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal.
Meyerowitz has published over 40 books and his work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world.
His work can be found in many major public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Fine arts Boston Museum and the Chicago Arts Institute.