If you’re into photography, and particularly if street photography is your thing, then you will have probably enjoyed an interview with the great Joel Meyerowitz at some point. He seems to be very generous with his time and in most photography podcast episodes listings there is usually one dedicated to him. And so you already know about how he got into photography, his approach to street work, photos taken from his car travelling across Europe, his collaborative work, colour vs black and white, Twin Towers documentary work, move to Tuscany etc.
I was kind of expecting a similar journey of reflection in the podcast Talk Easy hosted by Sam Fragoso but this one was different, it took a more revealing route and, for the 97 minutes duration, had me hooked.
The structure of the interview was based around a series of Joel’s images, all embedded on the podcast website. I wasn’t in a position to look at these at the same time I was listening but it didn’t really matter as they were described and many, though not all, are famous. I’ll certainly listen again with the images visible.
At 83 Joel Meyerowitz has a lifteime of taking photographs and a wealth of insightful stories to tell. What Sam Fragoso did so beautifully was to gently dig and probe just a little deeper than others had done. We learnt about Meyerowitz relationship with his parents and his first wife and how that impacted on his work, about his feelings when he took a particular photo, about legacy and death – heavy stuff and fascinating.
Here it is:
The discussed images can be seen on the Talk Easy website.