NewYork City, Time Square, 1963

Artist: Joel Meyerowitz
Title: New York City, Time Square, 1963
Media: Photograph
Dimension: -
Date: 1963

Joel Meyerowitz (born in 1938,the Bronx New York City) is a street photographer who began photographing in color in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of color during a time when there was significant resistance to the idea of color photography as serious art. In the early 70′s he taught the first color course at Cooper Union[citation needed] where many of today’s renowned color photographers studied with him. He made a significant change to large format color photography in 1976, and along with Stephen Shore and William Eggleston became the first group of young artists to use color exclusively.[citation needed] Their work, seen and published in America and Europe, influenced the next generation’s, particularly the young German artists’, turn toward using color in photography. He is the author of 16 books including the seminal[citation needed] book, Cape Light. Meyerowitz often uses an 8×10 large format camera to produce luminous photographs of place and people.

Meyerowitz's Statement: "It's just sky and water, but on any given day at any given moment, it changes and becomes a different color and atmosphere  I am caught up in it as an artist. Photographing is about the process of being in the present. We tend to sleepwalk through our lives. What inspires me is a response to that sharpened sense of being here and now and that is the underpinning of my work."

The image New York City, Times Square, 1963, shows a theater cashier,  her face obscured by a round ticket window speaker.

I chose this photograph because of how the "nowness" of that moment in time is so perfectly portrayed and captured. The title of this photograph, New York City, Time Square, 1963, describes it incredibly aptly. With me having prior knowledge of Meyerowitz being universally known for his color photography, this one caught my eye, being a black and white. Even though this picture is considered to be a portrait, it really is not a portrait at all. I look at it as more of an abstract portrait, if anything, because of the way Meyerowitz captured this picture. He focused in on the speaker in the glass, rather than the ticket teller's face, which portraits are regularly images, focusing on a person's face. It suits this exhibition's theme.


(Stefan Feather)