Joel Meyerowitz has a fascinating history, he was a contemporary with the street photography legends Gary Winogrand and Tod Papageorge, was one of the early pioneers of color photography, was given exclusive access to photograph ground zero after the 9/11 disaster site, and later moved to Tuscany while continuing to give talks and publish books to this day. His career in photography has spanned over fifty years.
Today I’m going to talk about this one photograph by Meyerowitz, taken while photographing ground zero after 9/11.
This is one of my favorite works by one of my favorite photographers. It seems (at least to a Canadian observer eighteen years later) to sum up the entire atmosphere of New York post 9/11. I love the image because it does such an incredible job of documenting the people and the mood of the time through a work of art. Joel seemed to simply stand back, observe, and let the camera do its magic. From the man in the bottom left hand corner appearing to feel the weight of his job, to the unified group of people all working together to find the remains of anyone left beneath the rubble, every detail works together in an almost painterly way. The smoke throughout the image gives the illusion that the twin towers fell hours ago. It’s only through the title of the photograph “Five more found, New York City, 10 October 2001” that we realize that the image was taken a month after the attack. The clouds aren’t smoke from the crash but from crews continuing work to cut debris to excavate the site.
This photograph isn’t old. It isn’t quite at the point where it feels as though it should sit in a glass box in a museum. But it is interesting to look at the parts of the faces that we do see in the photograph, and notice how different they are from today. I notice two mustaches that are now out of style, the uniforms of the crew all seem a bit dated, and the image has that resolution of an image still made in the film era.
But what really ties this photograph together is the lens flare in the top right corner. It symbolizes something that isn’t there outside the photograph. The power of this one little detail turns it into one of the most important works of art and not journalism within 21st century photography. A journalist wouldn’t use the false aberration of the camera to her advantage.
It’s remarkable where it’s placed, the image’s “balance” would be slightly too left leaning due to the smoke in the top left hand corner, but with the lens flare it “feels” right. How it’s shaped like a dove with a slight purple hue of chromatic aberration around it, and because it documents precisely what lenses do in the early 21st century. I would argue our grandchildren won’t understand why lens flares existed in the same way that they won’t know why phones ever had chords on them.
While fine tuning the exposure and composition something came into the camera that will never occur again. Astoundingly Joel made a beautiful image in some of the worst conditions imaginable. Through being there and choosing to work with the weight of the situation on his mind, and being there at the right moment at the right time, Meyerowitz was able to make an image that sums up an entire moment in history.
All the viewer’s judgments/assumptions about what happens before, during, and after this fraction of a second is a massive indicator of how they see the modern world. It’s this revelatory nature of discussing the content of the photograph that’s going to make it such an important image for people living in future generations that want to learn about early 21st century art and history. Even though Joel isn’t a strict journalist his work is also inseparable from the history of the place it’s made in. I’d argue a great work of art must appeal to those that have no cultural knowledge of the time, and is also inherently stuck to such knowledge. This is what makes the photographic problem so compelling, and what makes Meyerowitz such a master of the genre.
Here’s a link to Meyerowitz’s talk about the body of work he made in ground zero. I’d highly recommend any of his lectures on youtube, they’re all packed with gems.