The Pleasure of Seeing

'Street photography burst into colour through the pioneering work of Joel Meyerowitz. ... a new book charts his sixty-year career from the bustling 1960s new York scenes that made his name to the experiments in landscape photography...'The Telegraph

'From observing life – from the “very expensive business suits” to the “messengers” – he built a picture of the US that offers an answer.' - Financial Times

'The Pleasure of Seeing celebrates his life and work ... as well as his extraordinary work around Ground Zero post-9/11.' - i-paper

'... has some amazing tales to tell, but the pictures themselves tell their stories equally powerfully.' - Collagerie

'Like his photographs, Joel Meyerowitz’s reveries are perfectly composed, multilayered reflections of the world we live in. Complex yet accessible, they meet you where you are – as does Meyerowitz when he looks back at his journey to become one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time.' - Huck

Joel Meyerowitz is one of the pioneers of color photography, as well as an essential reference figure for street photography, large-format photography, and portraits. The Pleasure of Seeing is his first biography, the book offers a look behind the scenes of the life and career of one of America’s photographic living legends. In conversation with historian and photographer Lorenzo Braca, Meyerowitz speaks vividly about his beginnings, studying art history, meeting Robert Frank, photographing on the streets of New York City with Tony Ray-Jones and Garry Winogrand, traveling extensively across America and Europe, learning from John Szarkowski, director of photography at MoMA, working on numerous exhibitions and publications, photographing at Ground Zero in 2001 and 2002, and about the most recent still lifes and self-portraits projects. The book contains over one hundred pictures, including Joel’s most iconic photographs as well as new and previously unpublished material. This comprehensive visual biography testifies to the author’s continuing evolution throughout the six decades of his career and discusses his work in relation to his personal life, to the history of photography, and to the incessant transformation of the medium. Meyerowitz reveals anecdotes, personal memories, and the story behind many of his famous photographs.