Mt. Washington, NH -
Joel Meyerowitz loves parades. A legend among street photographers, the 86-year-old Meyerowitz told Monocle Radio’s Matthew Beaman recently that he seeks out parades among his venues. He is less interested in the paraders, however, than in shooting those watching and reacting to them.
Isn’t that often the case? The best photographic subjects are sometimes reacting to an action and maybe, in the process, creating an interesting interaction.
This has been my experience shooting the finish line of the grueling Mt. Washington Road Race. The runners are exhausted and often frigidly cold. They are also elated, however, to be greeted by friendly volunteers with blankets and smiles. Watching the volunteers watch and then help the runners presents its own kind of interactive and contrasting choreography that Meyerowitz seems to relish.
Meyerowitz was an early advocate of color photography in the 1960s and ‘70s, back when many in the profession did not take color seriously. He switched from 35mm to Leica M large-format cameras. When he was inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame, the organization described Meyerowitz as a “magician using colour" able to "both capture and frame the decisive moment.”
Meyerowitz was inspired by the great Robert Frank. Who wouldn’t be? Meyerowitz, Frank, and others such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, and Gary Winogrand invented the street photography form.
Meyerowitz’s classic image “Fallen Man, Paris”(below) references the themes raised here starting with the use of color in street photography in 1967. It’s extraordinary to discover that this was his only shot of that scene. You have to be fast and ready in street photography. He captured the decisive moment with his Leitz Summarom-M 35mm with Kodachrome 64 film before this man got up and dusted himself off. Almost everyone watched and nobody helped the fallen man. Indeed, a worker is seen attempting to walk right over him.
There is action, reaction, interaction, and even nonchalant inaction in this shot, which raise questions about what happened on this Paris street. Those questions invite you into a narrative, however, unformed it is. That’s the beauty of the genre of street photography and the genius of Meyerowitz.
