Joel Meyerowitz
November 9, 2006
"I have always been a photographer less interested in the academic and formal side of photography than for the feeling full side. I always opt for feeling. I think my pictures have feel in them, at the risk of sentimentality, which I try to avoid."
"In the moments after the collapse of the Twin Towers I was overcome by a deep impulse to help, to save, to soothe, but, being far away, there was nothing I could do. When I made my way home to New York several days later the first thing I did was go downtown. Standing in the crowds at the perimeter five blocks north of the zone, I raised my camera simply to see what could be seen and was reminded by a police officer that I was standing in a crime scene and no photographs were allowed, so I left. Yet, within a few blocks the echo of that reminder turned into consciousness and I saw what I had to do. To me, no photographs meant no history. I decided at that moment that I would find my way in and make an archive for the City of New York."- Joel Meyerowitz
Joel Meyerowitz went the become the only photographer authorized to be on site during the intermediate days after the 9/11 during the recovery effort and subsequent cleaning for rebuilding. His work covering ground zero, "Aftermath" has been published recently. This is is the most recent work of an icon of street photography, an artist that was fundamental for the introduction and acceptance of color for street and reportage photography.
In my view "Aftermath" is more a record of history than a photo artistic book. It will be remember for the content of the images rather than the artistic beauty of the pictures. Mored in this article published at the New York Times.
A nice series of images of Joel Meyerowitz can be found at the PDN legends gallery.
Posted in Books, Photographers
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