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Photographer, The World Trade Center Archive
Profile
September 11th has become the defining event of our time. The questions it raises have transcended politics and provoked reaction and discussion throughout our culture. The only photographer to gain unlimited access to Ground Zero, Joel Meyerowitz spent eight months capturing on film the vast human efforts to repair the devastation and heal our wounds.
“To me, no photographs meant no history,” says Meyerowitz. “My task was to make a photographic record of the aftermath: the awesome spectacle of destruction; the reverence for the dead; the steadfast, painstaking effort of recovery; the life of those whose act of salvation has embedded itself deeply into the consciousness of all of us in America and around the world.”
Meyerowitz took over 8,000 photographs and created the World Trade Center Archive, a portion of which he donated to the Museum of the City of New York.
 I think it was one of the best evenings we've ever had at the temple. His delivery was absolutely outstanding. Not only are his pictures wonderful, but he just relates so beautifully with the audience. One person said it was a shame we didn't record it because his remarks really are equally as important, we felt, as his photographs. And he's an outstanding human being. I think we were fortunate to have him. I can't say enough about the |
| Temple Beth-El |
In the years since 9/11, he has traveled the world sharing his experiences. His persistence in bringing to light this tragic chapter in American history was driven by his intense belief in the transformational power of art. In his speeches, Meyerowitz reaches beyond photography and art into the fields of Architecture and Urban Planning, Political Science, Communications, Psychology and the Meaning of Monuments, and Art History, ultimately inspiring audiences to become more involved in their communities and the world at large.
In 2001 Colin Powell appointed Meyerowitz Cultural Ambassador for Culture Connect, a new State Department initiative created to strengthen relationships between American cultural institutions and their counterparts around the world.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department asked the Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz to create a special exhibit from the archive. From 2001 to 2004 the exhibit traveled to over 200 cities in 60 countries, where over three-and-a-half million people, from Kabul to Lima to Beijing, viewed the catastrophic destruction of the 9/11 attacks and the physical and human dimensions of the recovery effort.
Meyerowitz has been featured on Nightline, CBS Sunday Morning and MSNBC as well as in The New York Times, The New Yorker and People.
He has published 15 books, including: Cape Light, widely considered a classic work of color photography, Bystander: A History of Street Photography; and Tuscany: Inside the Light.
His latest book, AFTERMATH (Phaidon Press, September 2006), features 400 of his large-format photos from Ground Zero and an engaging account of his experiences in his own words. It is the only existing photographic record of the monumental post-9/11 recovery efforts.
Meyerowitz is a Guggenheim fellow and an NEA and NEH award-winner. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and can also be viewed at www.joelmeyerowitz.com.