One of the things I learned on the street was to trust life and to keep hands off of it, and that feeling continues in the rest of the works that I do, the portrait, the landscapes, or any interest that I have. Things are good enough as they are, there's no reason to tamper with them.
Joel MeyerowitzAttempts by some teachers to adjust school curricula to incorporate programs that children watch on television suggest a new means of 'leading' children by running after them as quickly as possible.
Joel MeyerowitzI think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it's got lots of accounting going on in it-stones and buildings and trees and air - but that's not what fills up a frame. You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.
Joel MeyerowitzIt comes down to risk, again and again. If you risk coming out, if you risk making pictures that arenโt good, you might discover something in a photograph that is the key. The very doorway to your own interest.
Joel MeyerowitzThen I thought, Whoa. If there are no photographs, then there is no history. I'm going to get in there. I'm going to make these pictures. We need a record.
Joel MeyerowitzYou fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.
Joel Meyerowitz'Tough' meant it was an uncompromising image, something that came from your gut, out of instinct, raw, of the moment, something that couldn't be described in any other way. So it was tough. Tough to like, tough to see, tough to make, tough to understand. The tougher they were the more beautiful they became.
Joel Meyerowitz