Signed; Joel Meyerowitz - The Arch - 1988

The 192-meter arch, a beautiful futuristic shape projecting an optimistic aura, located on the western bank of the Missouri, contrasts strongly with the disorderly character of the city of St. Louis. Building on the strong focal point created by the arch, Joel Meyerowitz’s photographs speak of its constant presence. As a cultural symbol, the arch appears in the city on signs. Even when you don’t see it, it remains present as a symbolic figure in the city.

In this book, Joel Meyerowitz takes the arch as the throughline and integrates it into his images in the form of details, sometimes tiny, of an urban image otherwise saturated with shapes and information.

Master of color, Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most important contemporary American photographers. He captures America, digs into it, whereas color would tend to exalt only surfaces. He chooses proximity and critical empathy toward his subjects and creates with the viewer a visual complicity that few photographers manage to evoke.