Field of View: Joel Meyerorowitz

Joel Meyerorowitz is mainly a street photographer usually placed within the same bracket as the likes of Garry Winnogrand, Lee Friedlander and Tony Ray-Jones- big names associated with New York street photography from the 60s onwards- not to mention a  pioneer of colour fine art photography of the same ilk as William Eggleston. A key work of his, Cape Light (1979), is an influential work in the field of colour photography, shot using 8x10 Large Format film. He was also the only photographer responsible for putting together an archive of shots of the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, appropriately called Aftermath. I hope to take a cross-section of Meyerorowitz's work and discuss it here in terms of field of view.

New York City, 1975.

This is one of my favourite of his. Meyerorowitz has an interesting- almost mystical- view on his work and use of the frame, believing it to be more about ideas than pictures: "do the pictures sustain your ideas, or are they just good pictures?" (http://vimeo.com/38937942).

There's so much going on in the frame here. It stands to reason why Meyerowitz made a complete transfer to colour in the 60s. Everything is happening. Its the image I think about when reading the quote I used for the above caption. The 'happening' and the 'situation' were prominent in the 1960s, and I don't think I make too tenuous a point in linking these pictures to this.  In another interview he mentions 'multiple... fragmentary, simultaneous events" (http://timconnor.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/everything-is-important-joel.html), all happening within the frame together. True enough.

Fallen Man, Paris, 1967.
This image is perhaps more akin to this idea of the 'happening' of the 1960s. Its unlikely it is staged. Indeed, whilst honing his craft New York, Meyerorowitz states: " My timing was good, I was getting better at it, and I could see these things coming. It became too easy" (http://www.foto8.com/new/online/reviews/181-joel-meyerowitz-early-work).

One from the influential Cape Light series.
Meyerorowitz has a rich understanding of light and situation, an understanding which leads him to interpret atmospheric landscapes such as this in exactly the same terms as his earlier street photography:  "where life is tumbling into the frame and he must make crucial decisions. He may centre an event or he may move it to the side so that it becomes one of many things happening within the frame" (http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/photography/article_02.html).

Meyerorowitz spent 9 months photographing the site of the terrorist attack in New York, producing a scale of work that is both mesmerising and inspiring. This one leapt out at me, again because of the level of apocalyptic detail and craftsmanship in the image. The shells of buildings remind mimic cardboard cut-outs; the dust, smoke and water adding to the spectacle.

What he can't do with light isn't worth knowing, really. He must have studied the surrounding area for hours before pulling a shot like this out of the bag. Of course, shooting as he did with Large Format, it only serves to widen the sheer depth of the image; rich and busy in the foreground, whilst soft and hazy (much like Cape Cod) in the background.