Sitting in his studio, surrounded by a lifetime of iconic prints, legendary New York photographer Joel Meyerowitz reflects on a remarkable 60-year career. Now 87, he’s curating a retrospective of his life’s work – a journey that helped redefine street photography and champion colour photography as fine art.
“I see things differently now,” he says with a smile. “Different juncture points. I get to reassess the meaning I once gave an image.”
His images are featured in collections at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, and the New York Public Library. Credited with elevating colour photography when black and white dominated, Meyerowitz has always stayed true to his vision while embracing new methods.
COLOUR VS BLACK & WHITE
One key theme of his 2024 Tate Modern exhibition, A Question of Color, was his early practice of shooting scenes in both black and white and colour, allowing him to explore how mood and meaning shift with the medium.
“You don’t realise the importance until much later. Time reveals what a photograph was really about.”
– Joel Meyerowitz
Although secretive about a new digital project, he is no stranger to tech. He owned one of the first 100 Apple computers, courtesy of Steve Jobs. “No serial number,” he chuckles. “I lost it to a print guy who owed the mob.”
NEW YORK: THE ETERNAL MUSE
No place has shaped Meyerowitz’s eye like New York City.
“It’s a soundscape, an emotional scape,” he says. “The city gives you something visual, energetic, mental, physical, spiritual, social, even sexual. It’s perfect for a street photographer.”
In the wake of 9/11, he defied Mayor Giuliani’s ban on photography at Ground Zero. Friendly NYPD detectives, believing history deserved documentation, gave him a genuine badge marked “Mayoral Photographer,” granting him full access.
Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 2001. From Aftermath, 2001.
The result: over 8,500 images of Ground Zero, capturing the devastation, resilience, and sorrow of post-9/11 New York. Only 400 made it into Aftermath, his powerful book documenting that historic moment.
MASTERING THE ART OF WAITING
For this project, Meyerowitz blended 35mm, medium format, and large format cameras – skills honed over decades on the streets and in projects like Cape Light and Empire State.
For Empire State (1978), he took inspiration from Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: “What if the Empire State Building became my Mount Fuji?”
With tripod and camera, he patiently waited for New York life to unfold around the skyscraper, capturing the fleeting dance between people and place.
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT: CAPE LIGHT
But it was Cape Light (1976) that secured his place in photographic history. On Cape Cod, he finally proved colour photography could be as serious and artistic as black and white. “Cape Cod is a sand bar 60 miles out to sea,” he explains. “The air is pure. I wanted to photograph light itself—the way it plays, bounces, and sculpts.”
Joel Meyerowitz, Provincetown, 1976. From Cape Light, 1976.
Using an 8×10 view camera, Meyerowitz transformed the everyday into something transcendent. “It was a magic theatre on ground glass. I wasn’t chasing Edward Hopper, but maybe it was the same light he saw – and I saw it my way.”
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: HIS FIRST LOVE
Despite the acclaim, the street remains his true home. “It’s about instantaneous human connection,” he says.
The turning point? Watching Robert Frank photograph two girls for a booklet in 1962. Meyerowitz, then a young art director, was mesmerised. “Frank just knew when the telling gesture would happen. I thought: ‘this is photography – the art of stopping time’.”
Joel Meyerowitz, New York, 1963.
JOEL MEYEROWITZ’S LASTING LEGACY
From vibrant street scenes to haunting images of Ground Zero, Joel Meyerowitz has spent six decades capturing the soul of cities, the play of light, and the quiet drama of everyday life. His legacy continues to shape the future of street and colour photography.
Author: Andrew Hildreth
This is a reduced version of our exclusive interview with Joel Meyerowitz. You can read it in full in the summer issue of I-M Inquisitive Minds. Secure your copy, HERE.
Lead image: Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1976. From Empire State, 1978.
Portrait of Joel Meyerowitz by Joel Arles, 2016.
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