Joel Meyerowitz was born in the Bronx just before the Second World War. This year he celebrates his 50th year in photography with a retrospective published by Phaidon and exhibited at PhotoMed. Produced especially for the festival, the exhibition will be featured for the first time at Hotel des Arts in Toulon, before traveling around Europe.

His 1962 encounter with Robert Frank encouraged him to walk through the streets of New York with a 35 mm camera and a color film. His first book “Cape Light“ is considered a classic of color photography and features some of his most famous pictures, in which he explores the variations of colors when in contact with light.

He shoots with both a 35 mm camera and a large format Deardorff 20x25. Few photographers are capable of working in these formats, the two being quite different languages. One is able to capture the decisive instant with a 35 mm camera; while the large format camera reveals the beauty of reality thanks to the long exposure.

PhotoMed will exhibit, for the first time in Europe, Meyerowitz’s first black and white series alongside his color work. The exhibition also includes an unknown series that he made last year in Provence on the occasion of a journey with his wife, the writer Maggie Barrett. This body of work will be the main source for his next book, “Provence: Impressions éternelles” (“Provence: Eternal Impressions”).

Joel Meyerowitz Rétrospective
May 25th - June 17th, 2012
Hôtel des Arts
Centre méditerranéen d'art du Conseil Général du Var
236 rue du Maréchal Leclerc
83000 Toulon
T : +33 (0)4 94 91 69 18