Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color

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Traces a key turning point in the history of photography: the young Joel Meyerowitz's early experiments in colour photography.

An early advocate of colour photography, Joel Meyerowitz has impacted and influenced generations of artists. For fifty-eight years, the master photographer has documented the US's ever-changing social landscape.

For a while, during the late 1960s, Meyerowitz carried two cameras: one loaded with monochrome stock, the other with colour. Just how, when and why US fine-art photographers switched from black-and-white image-making, which was prized within the gallery system, to colour photography, once seen as the preserve of the holiday snapper, has been the cause of much debate.

In this book, Meyerowitz tells the story of his early days as a photographer when he was told that serious photographers took black & white pictures. 'But why' he asked, 'when the world is in colour' He proceed to buy a colour camera and various rolls of films and to read manuals and experiment with colour techniques: a passion he continued to pursue all his life...

Reviews

This latest book...puts a fresh spin on Meyerowitz's oeuvre. The photo pairings of black & white vs. color help us feel the tension between the images. We can then answer our own 'question of color.'-- "Art Photo Collector" (1/17/2024 12:00:00 AM)
Vibrant... Meyerowitz's insights are abundantly clear in arresting shots [paired with] commentary that reveals the depth of his artistic philosophy... This captivates.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)" (11/27/2023 12:00:00 AM)

Author Bio

Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. In 2017 Meyerowitz was honoured with a place at the Leica Hall of Fame, and was described as a 'magician using colour' and being able to both 'capture and frame the decisive moment'. Robert Shore is the author of several books about contemporary art and photography, including Post-Photography: The Artist with a Camera (2014), Beg, Steal and Borrow: Artists against Originality (2017), Andy Warhol (2020) and Yayoi Kusama (2021). He worked for many years as an arts reviewer and also as editor of Elephant magazine.