From the disco parties of Studio 54 to the shabby district of Bushwick, Meryl Meisler trained her sharp lens on an underground and explosive New York. Largely unnoticed until now, the 71-year-old American photographer is a revelation of the Portrait(s) festival, which is taking over Vichy this summer. We met her. Meryl Meisler discovers her photographs hung in series in the showroom of the former Vichy casino, all in gilding and Second Empire splendor. From the height of her 71 years, she has the sparkling look of a little girl on Christmas Eve. She seems surprised by the enthusiastic welcome reserved for her by the organizers of the 10th edition of the Portrait( s ) festival, of which she is the guest. And yet, it is a real revelation! Which recalls, a few years ago, that of Vivian Maier, the now most famous Manhattan nanny on the planet. But today it is rather a Vivian Maier on acid, because it is another vision of New York that is revealed in her images. Born in 1951, Meryl Meisler grew up in a Jewish family on Long Island. This suburb was, in the 1950s, a happy melting pot. His father, a printer, passed on his passion for film photography to him. At the age of seven, he gave her a small device, the Adventurer, which would not leave her throughout her childhood, tirelessly machine-gunning her family. But above all, his parents left him with boundless curiosity. “My father, Jack, and my mother, Sylvia, nicknamed Sunny, were loving and generous people with a great sense of humor, traditional but very open-minded. They were founding members of the Mystery Club,” she recalls. Bringing together eleven couples, The Mystery Club plans "mysterious" outings that take them to haunted houses, hypnosis sessions, recording studios, a gay sauna in New York or a nudist camp in New Jersey. . “Mom and dad were still laughing for days after a Mystery Club adventure. My brothers and I loved hearing their stories, which inspired my nocturnal explorations. It made me realize that I don't need to travel far to explore new worlds…” Her first self-portrait, made at the age of 24, says a lot about her artistic maturity and his photographic gaze. Posing in her parents' house, she immortalizes herself on an armchair, upside down, arms and legs crossed, one breast slipping out of her bodice. The scene seems absurd and joyful, provocative and ingenuous. It sums up her work well, a thousand miles from social conventions or American puritanism. “When I enrolled in my first photography course in 1973, I questioned my sexual identity. This question is more evident in my first self-portraits. In 1975 I moved to New York, and was thrilled to find myself in a city full of people from all walks of life. Because of all these influences and my personality, I developed my quirky vision and queer . » The crazy New York evenings of the 1970s follow one another , where everything seems permitted. From Studio 54 to the underground and punk parties of CBGB, another mythical club of the time, Meryl's device is at every party. Thanks to her friend Judi Jupiter, then a great figure in the world of the night, she infiltrates everywhere, capturing the improbable poses of the dancers, the ephemeral intimacies, the drugs dissolved in the euphoria, etc. In Vichy, she very quickly evokes the photographers who inspired her. First of all Lisette Model of course, who was her teacher. Then in all directions, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Weegee, Diane Arbus, Brassaï. And we find, in his images, the same sharp eye as his mentors. Like good fairies, she inherited a bit of everyone: from Lartigue, tenderness; from Diane Arbus, accuracy; from Brassaï, the grain of madness… Becoming a teacher in a school in the Bushwick district of Brooklyn in 1982, she went to color. “I acquired a small color camera, easy to carry and discreet. I didn't want my Norita Graflex stolen. The district was at the time completely abandoned, and in bad repute. However, her images give to see a certain joie de vivre. Despite an often dilapidated decor in the background, between ruined buildings and wrecked cars, the children have fun, smile at the camera. Since 2010, and the end of her teaching career, she can finally devote herself to her great work: immersing herself in her thousands of contact sheets and sorting her proofs! “I have always photographed since that first class in the fall of 1973. There are countless images in negative sleeves, slide boxes and digital files that I have never looked at before. There is so much to discover, edit and contextualize. I came to realize that for me, photography is a visual journal. All of my work reflects my personal and professional life, family, friends, community and travels over the past 49 years. “She ends up slipping mischievously: “If health follows, the best is yet to come. “A revelation, therefore, which presages yet others. Seen in Beaux Arts - Pierre Pirlo All photos here on the page are from her website: www.merylmeisler.com Meryl Meisler instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merylmeisler/?hl=en Exhibition in Vichy France:
From June 24, 2022 to September 4, 2022 www.ville-vichy.fr Vichy • 03200 Le Vernet