JOEL MEYEROWITZ RESEARCH
- Joel Meyerowitz (born March 6, 1938) is an American street, portrait and landscape photographer. His work covers a wide variety of photographic genres but I will be looking at his street photography as it applies to my project the best.
- He has published 40 books overall and his work has been shown in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries across the world.
- He had appeared in the film 'Finding Vivian Maier' along with Martin Parr and other specialist photographers. The movie 'Finding Vivian Maier' is an acclaimed documentary about a mysterious nanny, who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that were hidden in storage lockers and, discovered decades later, is now among the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never before seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her. The movie was published on 28th March 2014.
- He documented his home city of New York throughout 1960s and 70s.
EXAMPLES OF HIS PHOTOGRAPHS FROM HIS SELECTED WORKS:
35MM COLOR:
PHOTO ANALYSIS
35MM BLACK AND WHITE:
PHOTO ANALYSIS
EVERYDAY LIFE:
PHOTO ANALYSIS
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- After breaking down one photo from some of his selected works, I came to the conclusion that a clever part that Meyerowitz enjoys is to use the background in his images to subtly add to the scene/narrative that he is capturing in the shoot.
- Meyerowitz is very different to Martin Parr's work as it isn't as lively images and aren't as saturated as Parr's work. In conclusion, at the moment, i would prefer to shoot in Meyerowitz's style as it is more of a natural setting and filter on top, reflecting a more realistic image in my opinion.
- To gain conceptual inspiration from Meyerowitz, I hope to photograph street scenes but also focus on subtly showing the background aswell that should incorporate to the scene or narrative of the photograph, hopefully adding to the context of the image so it doesn't just show the same recurring image of people to audiences, and it does actually portray the street and setting it was shot in.
- Meyerowitz explains that 'human behaviour means something different when you have seen the repetitions year after year. The photographer I am today has a different energy and attitude and understanding of what street life or life in general, means'.
- He has also mentored many younger aspiring photographers of New York, including Melanie Einzig and Gus Powell, hopefully to encourage them and others who share his burning passion for street photography.
- Joel says that street photography is 'a way of discovering what the world looks like - no one can do that for you'.
JOEL MEYEROWITZ : HOW I MAKE PHOTOGRAPHS
- Whilst researching online on Joel's website, I came across this personal book of his which tells audiences everything about his work, and how approaches it. He speaks about his techniques, inspiration, experiences and also working images.- Even though this book written by him is not the typical photobook where he is just illustrating his photographs and I won't be able to gain inspiration for his physical outcomes, but however I think that this book demonstrates the contextual and internal
thoughts of how to conquer a street photography shoot professionally and in the most ideal way.
- ' The series begins with Joel Meyerowitz, who will teach you, among other essentials: how to use a camera to reclaim the streets as your own, why you need to watch the world always with a sense of possibility, how to set your subjects at ease, and the importance of being playful and of finding a lens that suits your personality. Illustrations of Meyerowitz's work are included throughout the book'.
- I suggested that this book by this inspired photographer would help take my shoots much further conceptually and contextually as when I go out completing my shoots, even though I have working images at the end, I tend to struggle with the actual confidence to go out and complete a shoot of realistic scenes as people are more likely to notice you now in 2022 rather than in the 70s, when Joel completed his work, due to the advanced production of equipment and technology in modern society. For my project to really come alive, I think getting close to my subjects will be necessary to really demonstrate what their 'everyday scene' is like, no matter what they are doing in that moment but the chance of someone noticing me and changing their natural human behaviour is common so its all about my external confidence out shooting in a place. I knew this would have to be a main factor whilst deciding my annual topic choice for my PI project but I was up for the challenge to show to audiences everyday scenes of people from different socialisations and backgrounds.
- - For my next shoots, I will also gain inspiration from this personal book of his of getting closer to subject matters to really convey what they're doing in their everyday candid scene I capture.
- This book would help develop that further into having more confidence whilst out shooting, overall creating better shoots being created in the near future so I decided to buy it from Amazon:
FRONT COVER
CONTENTS PAGE
BACK COVER
- There are 20 chapters in the book, each giving a different piece of advice on how to build confidence and reach your potential of being a street photographer.
