Joel Meyerowitz was born in 1938 in the Bronx, New York.  He started his photographic career in 1962.  He was one of the first photographers to dabble in color at a time when there was still serious resistance to it. His work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world.  He is considered a street photographer, in the style of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank.

Meyerowitz has authored over 17 books.

Within a few days of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 Meyerowitz began documenting the destruction and recovery efforts at Ground Zero and the surrounding neighborhood.  This documentary contains over 8,000 images  and was created in collaboration  with the Museum of the City of New York.

 Meyerowitz  has been presented with two Guggenheim fellowship awards,  and is also a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards, as well as a recipient of the Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Art and several other museums worldwide.