Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color

Joel Meyerowitz

Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color traces the experiments in color and black-and-white photography of the young Meyerowitz, a pioneer in the history of color photography.

An early advocate of color photography, Joel Meyerowitz has impacted and influenced generations of artists. For fifty-eight years, the master photographer has documented the United States’ ever-changing social landscape.

During the late 1960s, Meyerowitz carried two cameras: one loaded with monochrome stock, the other with color. Just how, when, and why American fine art photographers switched from black-and-white image-making, prized within the gallery system, to color photography, once seen as the preserve of tourist photography, has been the cause of much debate.

In Joel Meyerowitz: A Question of Color, Meyerowitz tells the story of his early days as a photographer when he was told that serious photographers took black-and-white pictures. «But why,» he asked, «when the world is in color?» He then bought a color camera and various rolls of film and began to experiment with color techniques: a passion he continues to pursue.

194 illustrations, 120 in color