Joel Meyerowitz: Wild Flowers

(Hardback)

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Description

This new and expanded edition of Joel Meyerowitz's widely acclaimed photobook, Wild Flowers - now, in a larger format, features new and unpublished images.

For nearly forty years Joel Meyerowitz has tended his visual garden in the streets and parks and cities he has visited or lived in. He goes out into the streets open-eyed and passionate, carrying a machine which is perfectly suited to the task of taking it all in. The Leica, as quick as the flick of an eyelash, effortlessly interrupts time, stopping and holding it forever.

These walks gave shape to new territory for him, which he began to think of as a garden that reflected the variety of his observations. Then, one day, while editing, Meyerowitz stumbled upon a small group of these flower photographs which he had gathered unknowingly. He began to believe that this innocent premise might be enough to tie together many of his other photographic concerns under the nominal subject of 'flowers,' which, given the surprises of city life, he viewed as flowers gone somewhat berserk-and so Wild Flowers was born.

Reviews

Showcases everyday scenes from New Yorkers in their Sunday best in 1964 to a man on a unicycle in San Juan carefully balancing a towering bouquet--all drawn together by a single, unexpectedly nuanced theme: the flower.--Ashley Simpson "Harper's Bazaar"
Presents snapshots in which the landscaoe of the cities the photographer lived in meets urban greenery [...] The series includes street photographs, portraits, still-life images and city scapes.--Anna Dziuba "Contemporary Lynx Magazine"
Meyerowitz's unforced curation shines brightest in moments of humor and attentive observation. [...] In 2021, after a year of increased fear, loss, and trepidation, flowers have continued to bloom and die, gracing public and private spaces, weddings and funerals. Never cloying, the florals in Wild Flowers are a reminder of a world that keeps growing.--Esm Hogeveen "Hyperallergic"
The flower thread[s] itself through his images like a medieval tapestry of mille fleur.--Miss Rosen "Blind"
Taking a look through the pages of Joel Meyerowitz's Wild Flowers, one sees images of happenstance, of hilarity, and of profound sadness. Originally released in 1983, the idea for Wild Flowers came to Meyerowitz when he discovered a notable amount of flowers in his work. The result of the project was an interesting, simultaneous extrapolation of and departure on and from his previous work, acknowledging the flower in our daily life.--Andy Dion "Musee"

Author Bio

Joel Meyerowitz (born in New York, 1938) is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. Celebrated as a pioneer of color photography, he is a two-time Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities awards, and a recipient of The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal. He has published 30 books.