New York City, 1963.
Curated by Denis Curti and created in collaboration with the Joel Meyerowitz Photography Archive in New York, the exhibition traces the entire career of the American photographer through over 90 works, from the 1960s to the present day. For the first time in Italy, self-portraits taken during the 2020 lockdown period will be presented.
"I think photography is a search for one's identity as an artist and as a human being"
Joel Meyerowitz
Brescia dedicates an extensive retrospective to Joel Meyerowitz (New York, 1938), one of the protagonists of the contemporary photography scene - the first true anthological exhibition ever organized in Italy - capable of retracing his entire career, spanning six decades of activity, from the 1960s to the present day.
The exhibition presents over 90 images organized by thematic chapters and offers many of the photographs that have contributed to redefining the concept of Street photography, within which Joel Meyerowitz makes his entrance by introducing the use of color to interpret and fully capture the complexity of the modern world.
Starting from the 1960s, Meyerowitz emerged as one of the most interesting avant-garde young photographers in New York. His research runs parallel to that of other great authors such as Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus. Meyerowitz's art is distinguished by a peculiar ability to empathize and fully immerse himself in what his eye sees and his lens translates into an image.
The most characteristic feature of his photography can be defined by the English term "intimacy", that is, the ability to get as close as possible to the scene to try to capture the intimacy of the moment, to welcome and recognize the unexpected. Exemplary in this regard are those taken in the United States during the Vietnam War, which offer an original point of view of American society of the period, contributing to reflection on the country's identity in a moment of profound crisis, using the image to question the relationship between individual and society, between war and peace.
The exhibition also includes photographs from the 1980s when Meyerowitz gradually shifted his gaze from the street to nature - such as those taken in Cape Cod, on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts, which are distinguished by their broad scope and meditative contemplation of places - or his Still life works, with strong evocative power, or the images taken by Meyerowitz, the only photographer authorized to document the World Trade Center district of New York, in the days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A focus is dedicated to the 365 self-portraits, never before shown in Italy, that Meyerowitz took, day by day, during the 2020 lockdown.
Even in these more recent works, Joel Meyerowitz reminds us how photography can be a means of reflection on the experiences of individuals and the community, a device to rediscover the present in all its aspects.
