Each year, the Sony World Photography Award recognises one artist with the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize. Now in its 19th聽year, the award is given to individuals who have shaped the history of the medium, redefining what it means to capture an image. This year, the honour goes to Joel Meyerowitz, a figure known for works that are at once revealing and enigmatic, imbued with beauty and wit. Meyerowitz鈥檚 subjects are wide-ranging, from the bustle of city life to Cape Cod鈥檚 sweeping horizons,聽via his pivotal Ground Zero series and recent self-portraiture. Over the years,聽Meyerowitz has captured the surprises to be found in ordinary life, if we choose to look.
The artist was born in New York City in 1938, a bustling and vibrant location that became the protagonist of much of his later work. He began his career as an advertising art director, before a chance encounter with acclaimed Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank changed his trajectory. Meyerowitz watched Frank shoot an advertising project for him in 1962, prompting him to quit his job and head out onto the streets with a borrowed camera and two rolls of colour film.聽The prevailing view at the time was that serious photographers shot only in black and white, to which Meyerowitz said: 鈥淏ut why, when the world is in colour?鈥澛燞e became an early proponent of the method, propelling colour into the realm of fine art.聽
His fascination with colour continued to shape his experimentations throughout the 1960s, defining an approach he calls 鈥渇ield photographs,鈥 which were a study of colour, objects and patterns across the frame. In them, he emptied the centre of the frame of a specific action or event, creating a more complicated and chaotic image that mirrored the rhythms of everyday life on the street. He said: 鈥淚 was trying to unlock photography from the aesthetic of 鈥榯he decisive moment鈥 鈥 a difficult thing 鈥 and to bring the photograph closer to the experience itself, which is inchoate and unresolved in ways that I had been reluctant to deal with.鈥 The result is the high-octane street photography that has become synonymous with Meyerowitz鈥檚 name. The work feels alive 鈥 1970s New York and Cape Cod rendered with electric immediacy.
Some of the most moving images in Meyerowitz鈥檚 oeuvre are those taken in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11th, 2001. He was the only photographer granted access to the site, documenting its transformation from a place of total devastation to cleared bedrock, over the course of nine months. The final archive comprised 8,000 images, forming a comprehensive historical record of one of America鈥檚 defining moments. He said of the experience: 鈥淚 came in as an outsider, a witness bent on keeping the record, but over time I began to feel a part of the very project I鈥檇 been intent on recording.鈥 The shots reveal the scale of the destruction, with dozens of labourers working to remove the rubble, before homing in on an intimate moment, like the close-up portrait of an exhausted worker.聽
In winning the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, Meyerowitz joins a distinguished lineage. Over the past 19 years, the award has acknowledged the voices behind some of the most groundbreaking photographic work of our time, including Edward Burtynsky, Graciela Iturbide, Sebasti茫o Saldago and Susan Meiselas. Each one represents a legacy that says something enduring and vital about our current moment. Meyerowitz, with fifty years of experience behind him, is well placed as the latest in this glittering line-up. He says: 鈥淚 am honoured to be selected as this year鈥檚 recipient. The photographs I have made over the years show the world as I see it, and the moments of beauty, humour and fun that can be found everywhere, if we take the opportunity to look. I hope this exhibition will encourage visitors to look again at their surroundings and engage with all of the life that unfolds around them.鈥澛
To mark the award, a major retrospective will be on display at Somerset House, London as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition. This showcase is an insight into the spirit and curiosity that has characterised Meyerowitz’ practice for the past six decades. Through video and audio installations, the artist invites visitors to see from his vantage point, recalling the sense of wonder he experienced seeing the scenes in his images for the first time. Several commissioned video and audio installations were created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Chris Ryan. In them, the photographer reflects on the process of making specific images, as well as charting the trajectories of his life, tracing the steps and creative turning points that have led him to the current moment.聽
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award acknowledges the towering figures who have truly changed the way we look at our world. Few have done this more successfully than Joel Meyerowitz. He pushed fine art and street photography from its comfort zone of black-and-white, into the world of colour. His images are as chaotic, vibrant and messy as reality, capturing modern life at its most engaging. More than fifty years ago, the artist took to the streets with nothing more than a borrowed camera and a roll of film – and photography was never the same again.
A retrospective of Joel Meyerowitz’s work is at Somerset House, London from 17 April – 4 May 2026.
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Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. 漏 Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1965.
2. 漏 Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1975.
3. 漏 Joel Meyerowitz, Darrell, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1983.
4. 漏 Joel Meyerowitz, Central Park, New York City, 1966.
5. 漏 Joel Meyerowitz, New York City, 1963.
