Author(s): Alessia Tagliaventi

PHOTOGRAPHY THEORY + WRITING

Storytelling, use of color and black and white, personal and social issues: these are just a few of the many themes that the American photographer Joel Meyerowitz discusses with the photography critic Alessia Tagliaventi. This book results in a combination of text and images which constitutes both a complex examination of Meyerowitz' work and a manual on the reading of photography itself. Through Meyerowitz' suggestive pictures and Tagliaventi's insightful questions, the reader will not only learn about Meyerowitz' art but also about the basic and more advanced photography technics and secrets of this fascinating art. Through this insightful book the reader will discover the secrets and fascinating stories of Meyerowitz' work. This is an astonishing journey through the work of one of the most famous and versatile photographers today. Joel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He was born in New York in 1938. He began photographing in 1962. He is a "street photographer" in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, although he now works exclusively in colour. As an early advocate of colour photography (mid-60's), Meyerowitz was instrumental in changing the attitude toward the use of colour photography from one of resistance to nearly universal acceptance. His first book, Cape Light, is considered a classic work of colour photography and has sold more than 150,000 copies during its 30-year life. He is the author of 20 other books, including Legacy: The Preservation of Wilderness in New York City Parks (Aperture), and his 50 year retrospective book, Taking My Time, was published by Phaidon Press in 2013. He currently has a major retrospective exhibition at the NRW Forum in Dusseldorf. In November another large scale exhibition, "Immersion", opens in la Piscine Museum in Roubaix, France. Born in Rome, Alessia Tagliaventi is a scholar of history of photography and editor of Contrasto, a publishing house devoted to photography. She has curated several photography books and catalogues published nationally and internationally. She is author of critical essays for numerous publications, among those: My brother's keeper: Documentary Photographers and Human Rights, Master Photographers, Shadow of War, Photoshow. She also teaches courses of theory and history of photography.