Joel Meyerowitz.
The Everyday Chaos of Ordinary Life
Good photographers have the ability see special moments in the mundane, while great photographers manage to capture them, immortalising them in the 2D format and enabling others to eternally share in a moment that at the time, was fleeting. Such is the skill of Joel Meyerowitz, an icon of contemporary photography often regarded as a pioneer of the colour format.
His career began in the early 1960s inspired by an encounter with photographer Robert Frank, whose seminal book The Americans birthed a generation of what now refer to as ‘street photographers’ throughout the Sixties and Seventies. To this end Meyerowitz grew in stature as a New York street photographer, his early work characterised by his vibrant and colourful observations imagery of people going about their everyday lives. His work in more recent times is focuses on large meditative formats and still life, introspectively explore the meaning of life.
“I learned, I think everything I know about being an artist, using a Leica on the streets. It taught me to understand human nature and to predict even the kinds of little things that might be happening. It has engaged my curiosity with the world and the meaning that comes out of the world.” ~ Joel Meyerowitz
The multiple Award winning Meyerowitz represented the United States at the Venice Biennale for Architecture in 2002 and received the prestigious Leica Hall of Fame Award in 2017. ‘The Everyday Chaos of Ordinary Life’ is on exhibition now at the Leica Gallery London until the 20th October 2019. All prints from the exhibition will be available to purchase.
