7/13/2019 How Joel Meyerowitz put the color in photography - CNN Style

Arts

American life through the eyes of a color photography

pioneer
Published 4th January 2018

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/joel-meyerowitz-color-berlin/index.html 1/4
7/13/2019 How Joel Meyerowitz put the color in photography - CNN Style

Credit: © Joel Meyerowitz/Courtesy Howard Greenberg

Written
by Jacopo Prisco, CNN

There
was
a
time
when
color
photography
wasn't
taken
seriously.
In
the
1960s
and
1970s,
it
was
considered
amateurish,
good
for
holiday
snaps
and
advertisements
at
best.
It
had
no
place
in
the
art
world,
where
black-
and-white
prevailed.

The
work
of
a
few
rebels
was
instrumental
in
changing
this
attitude.
Chief
among
them
Joel
Meyerowitz,
one
of
the
earliest
and
most
successful
advocates
of
color.
The
New
York
photographer,
who'll
turn
80
this
year,
started
his
pioneering
work
with
color
film
in
1962,
mostly
by
accident.

In
pictures:
A
brief
history
of
street
photography

"When
I
began,
in
all
my
innocence,
the
first
roll
of
film
I
ever
put
in
a
camera
was
a
color
film,
because
it
seemed
to
me
the
world
was
in
color
and
you'd
take
pictures
of
the
world
as
it
looked,"
he
said
in
a
phone
interview.

"I
didn't
understand
at
that
point
that
black-and-white
was
considered
high
art
and
color
was
considered
amateurish,
commercial
and
journalistic.
There
was
a
real
built-in
prejudice
and
my
generation
had
to
fight
that
fight."

Double shot

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7/13/2019 How Joel Meyerowitz put the color in photography - CNN Style

1 / 9  – Puerto Rico Day Parade, New York City (1963)

Joel Meyerowitz, a pioneer of color photography. Reminiscing about this shot from in the early '60s, he said: "The four girls
stood in a doorway primping and getting ready to walk in the parade. Seen against the dreary buildings, they were like tropical
... Read More
flowers bursting into color." Credit: © Joel Meyerowitz/Courtesy Howard Greenberg

In
1966,
Meyerowitz
drove
across
Europe
armed
with
two
cameras:
one
with
color
film,
one
with
black-and-
white.
During
the
trip,
he
took
25,000
photographs
over
700
rolls
of
film,
half
of
which
were
in
color.
Whenever
there
was
an
opportunity,
he
would
make
pairs
of
pictures
in
both
formats
to
compare
them.

"When
I
got
back,
I
had
a
black-and-white
show
at
MoMA
(New
York's
Museum
of
Modern
Art),
but
as
I
was
editing
the
color
films
from
that
trip,
my
conviction
was
getting
stronger.
Within
the
next
couple
of
years
I
turned
to
color
almost
completely,
and
by
1971
I
was
finished
with
black-and-white,"
he
said.

Boulevards of the world

India
through
the
eyes
of
Raghubir
Singh

While
pushing
for
color,
Meyerowitz
made
his
name
as
a
street
photographer
by
capturing
the
vibrant,
colorful
drama
of
everyday
life
in
New
York
City.

"The
mix
of
life
on
the
street
offers
untold
opportunities
to
observe
human
nature
and
one's
personal
response
to
it.
By
doing
that,
you
begin
to
see
what
it
is
about
the
world
that
is
so
appealing
or
attractive
to
you
as
an
individual.
A
street
photographer
makes
the
most
of
what
he's
been
given,
any
time
he
goes
out
in
the
street,"
he
said.

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7/13/2019 How Joel Meyerowitz put the color in photography - CNN Style

A shot from a Parisian street from 1967. Credit: © Joel Meyerowitz/Courtesy Howard Greenberg

A
selection
of
Meyerowitz's
influential
work
--
both
in
color
and
in
black-and-white
--
is
now
on
show
in
a
retrospective
titled
"Why
Color?"
at
Berlin's
C/O
Foundation.
This
exhibition,
he
said,
will
encourage
visitors
to
consider
how
much
attitudes
toward
color
photography
has
changed.

"When
you
have
a
life
that
spans
55
years
of
photography,
you
get
to
see
the
history
of
recent
photography
itself.
The
question
of
color
is
one
of
the
big
ones."

"Joel Meyerowitz: Why Color?" is on show at C/O Berlin Foundation until Mar. 11, 2018.

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