Joel Meyerowitz’s city life
A pioneer in the field of so-called street photography, but also one of the first artists to make a significant contribution toward establishing color photography as an art form, Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most prominent personalities in international photography. His first European retrospective exhibition, titled «Out of the Ordinary, 1970-1980,» is on display at the Thessaloniki Photography Museum until November 2. One-hundred-and-fifty works, both vintage and contemporary prints, depict images from busy streets in big cities, but also moments from the urban and natural landscapes that Meyerowitz captured with his lense in the 70s. Born in the Bronx in 1938, Meyerowitz started taking photographs of various happenings in 1962, with a small 35 mm camera. In 1972 he turned to large-size colored photography, focusing on landscapes and places. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, he started an archive with photographs from Ground Zero, with which he represented the USA at the 8th Biennale of Architecture in Venice, in 2002. Describing himself, he has said that he has been wandering around avenues and city streets across the world for 40 years, always camera in hand. He has compared cities to nature, in terms of the surprises, the energy and their savagery. He has also said that watching people reveal their mystery in just one second has been his source of joy and has deepened his relationship with photography.
