Category — Jeff Mermelstein

The man in action

From the Big Apple emerges one Jeff Mermelstein, a street photographer whose work is generally associated with photo journalism. He is a photographer who has evolved through the ages so to speak – from black and white to color, from manual to auto focus. After studying at the International Center of Photography, Mermelstein has moved on to work for wideknown companies like the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Life Magazine. He also took pictures for advertising purposes for companies like Hewlett Packard, and electronics giant Samsung. [Read more →]

When he walked into the room, Jeff Mermelstien exuded an air of nervousness.  He kept his head down and said little as he surveyed the small class and edged his tall body toward the back.  The few things he said were calm and bored sounding as he first opened his mouth to introduce himself and to ask for help setting up.  It was as though he had the distinct impression that we as a class were going to verbally attack him and his art at the first possible opening.  He set up his slides and steeled himself for a blank and humorless hour and a half.  He obviously did not realize the kind of class he was dealing with. [Read more →]

As soon as Jeff Mermelstein entered room 12-170 I knew it was going to be a fun, action-packed class.  It began with him asking Yuriy, a fellow classmate, and I to change seats in order to set up his projector.  Gladly, we did as asked.  As we were moved our belongings, Jeff cracked jokes to us and could have been mistaken for a college student himself.  Previously, I was expecting that class to be just another talk with a photographer, but I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t. [Read more →]

Street photography was a realm of art in which I had never entered. It was completely foreign to me, I was aware of its existence, and that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject. So, any type of exposure to the subject of seeing any examples of it from any artist would have been an enriching experience. When I was told the prolific street photographer Jeff Mermelstein would be coming into our class to personally show us some of his work I figured it would be something I had never really seen before and it would be intriguing to hear about the photos from the person who actually took them. [Read more →]

I was very excited to have a chance to meet Jeffrey Mermelstein. I had never met a professional photographer before and the people who have this as their career have always fascinated me. I knew that he was very proficient in his field and I was glad to meet someone who has been a photographer for some time and knew all of the ins and outs of the job. His photos were very entertaining as were his stories. [Read more →]

Jeff Mermelstein is a street photographer, who prefers the title photojournalist.  He is not comfortable with the title street photographer because it implies different things to different people. Since he was five years old, he had a strong and vigorous interest in colors.  When he was 20, he fell in love with color photography. “Working in color is an additional ingredient in the juggling act of making an interesting photograph.” He is very interested in surprise and what one cannot anticipate, or plan. The literal proximity in which he has made most of his work is on the streets of NY, although he was quite prolific outside of NY as well. The American social content in general interests him, but he “just happens to live in NY.” [Read more →]

What is the best approach to shoot street photographs? While some street photographers considered that the techniques of photographing are the most crucial parts of their work, Jeff Mermelstein emphasized simplicity and “perpetual hard work.” Taking the time out of his schedule, Mermelstein not only delivered his interpretation of street photography during the slideshow presentation but also gave the students an insight into creating their own themes for their street photography project. [Read more →]

            On November 4th, our IDC class had the pleasure of welcoming renowned street photographer, Jeff Mermelstein. It was evident from the start that Mermelstein had his unique style of doing things; while most photographers would’ve shown a powerpoint of their work, Mermelstein brought in the actual racks containing his images and projected them onto the overhead. Professor Bernstein had hinted that Jeff is a master of his field, but it was his passionate and down to earth demeanor that made his visit memorable, enriching, and most of all, entertaining. [Read more →]

Source: www.stevenkasher.com

He walks into the room, momentarily addresses the class, and swiftly proceeds to installing his collection of photographs into the projector.  As if trying to avoid attention, the man works silently until his work is ready for display, only voicing his concern for the abundance of light.  Once the projector turns on, he simply switches from picture to picture and they themselves incite the questions that follow.  If you were to see a man of such simple demeanor toying with his camera in some Manhattan district, you would fail to realize that you are bearing witness to Jeff Mermelstein, worldwide authority on street photography, contributing to an art that is as much his as anybody’s. [Read more →]

At first, I didn’t know how to respond to Jeff Mermelstein as he began to prepare his old-fashioned slides for our class. He seemed a little confused and I was nervous that he was going to turn out to be a grumpy old man. I was half-expecting a boring presentation, one slide after another with a few monotonous descriptions of when and where each photograph was taken. Then, Jeff Mermelstein began to describe, with fervor, his experience with being a street photographer. All of my predictions were proven wrong. His use of language was vivid as he spoke of his love of color photography. He mentioned how seductive color photography is to him, like “colored M&M’s.” [Read more →]