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Cape Light
Originally published in 1979, "Cape Light" became an instant classic and one of the most influential photography books published in the latter part of the 20th century. Common scenes -- tiny figures on a beach, a porch railing against a storm-darkened sky, a blue raft against a summer cottage -- all are transformed by the poignant light of the Cape and the photographer's subtle and luminous vision. This exquisitely printed book captures every nuance of color and light in that unique juncture of sky, sea, and land that is Cape Cod.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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About the author
Joel Meyerowitz
74 books42 followersJoel Meyerowitz is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in over 350 exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world. He was born in New York in 1938 and began photographing in 1962. Meyerowitz is a “street photographer” in the tradition of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, although he works exclusively in color. As an early advocate of color photography (early-60’s) he was instrumental in changing the attitude toward color photography from one of resistance to nearly universal acceptance. His first book “Cape Light” is considered a classic work of color photography and has sold over 100,000 copies during its 26-year life. He has published nineteen other books including “Bystander: The History of Street Photography” and “Provence: Lasting Impressions.”
In 1998 Meyerowitz produced and directed his first film, ”POP”, an intimate diary of a three-week road trip he made with his son Sasha and his father, Hy. This odyssey has as its central character an unpredictable, street wise and witty 87-year-old with Alzheimer’s. It is both an open-eyed look at aging and a meditation on the significance of memory.
Within a few days of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Meyerowitz began to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero. He was the only photographer who was granted unimpeded access to the site. Meyerowitz took a meditative stance toward the work and workers there, systematically documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation. The World Trade Center Archive includes more than 8,000 images and will be available for research, exhibition, and publication at museums in New York and Washington, DC.
In 2001 The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department asked the Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz to create a special exhibition of images from the archive to send around the world. The images traveled to more than 200 cities in 60 countries and over three and a half million people viewed the exhibition.
In addition to the traveling shows, Meyerowitz was invited to represent the United States at the 8th Venice Biennale for Architecture with his photographs from the World Trade Center Archives. In September 2002, he exhibited 73 images – some as large as 22 feet – in lower Manhattan. Some recent books are: “Taking My Time”, his fifty year, two volume, retrospective book by Phaidon Press of London, “Provence: lasting Impressions,” co-authored with his wife Maggie Barrett, a book on the late work of Paul Strand by Aperture, "Glimpse": Photographs From Moving Car, which was a solo show at MoMA, and "Joel Meyerowitz Retrospective", published in conjunction with his recent show at NRW Forum in Dusseldorf.
Meyerowitz is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and many others.
In 1998 Meyerowitz produced and directed his first film, ”POP”, an intimate diary of a three-week road trip he made with his son Sasha and his father, Hy. This odyssey has as its central character an unpredictable, street wise and witty 87-year-old with Alzheimer’s. It is both an open-eyed look at aging and a meditation on the significance of memory.
Within a few days of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Meyerowitz began to create an archive of the destruction and recovery at Ground Zero. He was the only photographer who was granted unimpeded access to the site. Meyerowitz took a meditative stance toward the work and workers there, systematically documenting the painful work of rescue, recovery, demolition and excavation. The World Trade Center Archive includes more than 8,000 images and will be available for research, exhibition, and publication at museums in New York and Washington, DC.
In 2001 The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department asked the Museum of the City of New York and Meyerowitz to create a special exhibition of images from the archive to send around the world. The images traveled to more than 200 cities in 60 countries and over three and a half million people viewed the exhibition.
In addition to the traveling shows, Meyerowitz was invited to represent the United States at the 8th Venice Biennale for Architecture with his photographs from the World Trade Center Archives. In September 2002, he exhibited 73 images – some as large as 22 feet – in lower Manhattan. Some recent books are: “Taking My Time”, his fifty year, two volume, retrospective book by Phaidon Press of London, “Provence: lasting Impressions,” co-authored with his wife Maggie Barrett, a book on the late work of Paul Strand by Aperture, "Glimpse": Photographs From Moving Car, which was a solo show at MoMA, and "Joel Meyerowitz Retrospective", published in conjunction with his recent show at NRW Forum in Dusseldorf.
Meyerowitz is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of both the NEA and NEH awards. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and many others.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 17, 2019
The more I looked at this collection – and in full light – the more I appreciated the colors in the pictures. For the most part I didn’t understand what Meyerowitz was saying in the introduction, except for one thing: In response to the interviewer’s comment about the pictures of “things that I’ve seen before,” Meyerowitz, quoting someone in a positive way, said that he uses ‘“nominal subject matter.’” It’s the color he’s after. The rest of the picture is just scaffolding.
Meyerowitz references the blue in a rubber raft leaning against the side of the house. It’s the blue he wanted. The house was not relevant, but I thought the clapboard house was a distraction, a blot on the picture. Don’t we see in gestalt-like ways so that the background complements the focus point? While a good many of these Meyerowitz pictures do that, more than a few do not. The blurb on the back cover refers to the “poignant light of the Cape” and states that the prints in this collection “capture every nuance of color and light in that unique juncture of sky, sea and land,” and that for these pictures “the locale could be no other.” I suppose this means that "the locale" provided the color opportunities that Meyerowitz was after (i.e., the wide-open "sky, sea and land" scapes). While true for many of the pictures, though, a few could easily have been taken in Anywhere USA.
Meyerowitz references the blue in a rubber raft leaning against the side of the house. It’s the blue he wanted. The house was not relevant, but I thought the clapboard house was a distraction, a blot on the picture. Don’t we see in gestalt-like ways so that the background complements the focus point? While a good many of these Meyerowitz pictures do that, more than a few do not. The blurb on the back cover refers to the “poignant light of the Cape” and states that the prints in this collection “capture every nuance of color and light in that unique juncture of sky, sea and land,” and that for these pictures “the locale could be no other.” I suppose this means that "the locale" provided the color opportunities that Meyerowitz was after (i.e., the wide-open "sky, sea and land" scapes). While true for many of the pictures, though, a few could easily have been taken in Anywhere USA.
May 18, 2020
Photographer Joel Meyerowitz is best known for his New York City street photography, which is lithe, spontaneous and, more often than not, presented in black and white.
The photograph in this book are almost polar opposite. Made with a large format camera on a wood tripod, the images are quiet and understated, capturing light, shape, form and, especially, colour. There's a simplicity, a serenity to them. These are images that would benefit from being seen large scale, and while the size of the prints in this book are generous, I'd love to see them larger.
The is a reprint of an earlier edition published in 1978, Meyerowitz comments on the new book's improved contrast but I think there's work to be done (or my copy has faded over time). For example there's a photo he refers to in the introduction that features a woman inside a room, but the room is so dark that it's actually quite hard to make her out.
It sounds unfair to say this about a book of photography but the best thing about this book is the extensive 15 page introduction with Massachusetts artist Bruce K. MacDonald. It's exceptional, consisting of seven fairly in-depth interviews about Meyerowitz's photography. The questions (and responses) are perceptive and allow for a highly articulate explanation of how and why these photos exist.
I've had the luxury of spending a lot of time with this book and the gradations of colours at dusk, the shapes of interior hallways, the '70s-era building exteriors are quietly evocative, speak of a time and, I expect, the appeal of a photographer's memories of that time.
Recommended.
The photograph in this book are almost polar opposite. Made with a large format camera on a wood tripod, the images are quiet and understated, capturing light, shape, form and, especially, colour. There's a simplicity, a serenity to them. These are images that would benefit from being seen large scale, and while the size of the prints in this book are generous, I'd love to see them larger.
The is a reprint of an earlier edition published in 1978, Meyerowitz comments on the new book's improved contrast but I think there's work to be done (or my copy has faded over time). For example there's a photo he refers to in the introduction that features a woman inside a room, but the room is so dark that it's actually quite hard to make her out.
It sounds unfair to say this about a book of photography but the best thing about this book is the extensive 15 page introduction with Massachusetts artist Bruce K. MacDonald. It's exceptional, consisting of seven fairly in-depth interviews about Meyerowitz's photography. The questions (and responses) are perceptive and allow for a highly articulate explanation of how and why these photos exist.
I've had the luxury of spending a lot of time with this book and the gradations of colours at dusk, the shapes of interior hallways, the '70s-era building exteriors are quietly evocative, speak of a time and, I expect, the appeal of a photographer's memories of that time.
Recommended.
June 14, 2025
I've only "read" two photo books (cover to cover, all the text, the intro, the interviews, etc.) and I enjoyed both experiences immensely. A photo appreciator at best, I'm familiar with photographers and photography as art but am not a photographer myself. Flipping through these pages and reading the interviews and how Meyerowitz talks about light, and horizon, and subject matter is transportive. He sounds so wise, so thoughtful, so... brilliant. I heard of this book from @dannys_photobook_corner on tik tok, and I'm so glad I put in an ILL for this photo book. Reminiscent of an I SPY book in the way there's the tiniest hint of whimsy in some of these photographs, especially the scale (GIANT skies, (tiny) people), the photos of Provincetown beaches and landscapes fill me with melancholy, make me feel cozy and relaxed, and make me long to sit on a porch of my own, watching as the light changes and how it makes me feel. A great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
January 22, 2023
This book is fantastic. I first bought it in my early teen years, I believe in the early 80’s. I’m not sure what ever happened to that original copy. Later, when I looked to replace it, it cost a fortune to get a used copy because it was out of print. Now it’s available again as a reprint with newly remastered prints. Buy it before it’s gone again!
The photos are beautiful beyond words. They express the feeling of what Cape Cod feels like perfectly. I cannot imagine having lived without having this book, and without having these photos in my mind.
I entered it here in Goodreads because if I didn’t, I may never have read the introduction, biographical chronology, and notes on the camera and film used to make the photos in the book.
The photos are beautiful beyond words. They express the feeling of what Cape Cod feels like perfectly. I cannot imagine having lived without having this book, and without having these photos in my mind.
I entered it here in Goodreads because if I didn’t, I may never have read the introduction, biographical chronology, and notes on the camera and film used to make the photos in the book.
November 2, 2020
Incredible perspective to an alternative medium of photography, swapping the riff-raff jazzy 35mm Leica, in favour of a large format camera. The images show extraordinary nuances of how he works with light. An incredible photographer, a painter of light and colour.
December 2, 2018
Beautiful work. well composed- deep seeing.
August 9, 2022
such sensitive vision. the houses of Provincetown, Massachusetts, through his lens bear a strange resemblance to the ancient Parthenon's white marble columns and broken walls. timeless poetry.
Read
March 21, 2025soft rock aor photography. especially reminiscent of the band Pages. make of that what you will
February 21, 2017
When I look through the photos in this book, it brings me back to the times when I used to wonder the streets, looking at roofs, cars, trees, and seeing how their colours melded with that of the sky.
He has done a great job at capturing different colours, often where the sky melds into the ocean. Other times he photographs the same scene at different times of the day, and some of the colours caught are outstanding, perhaps colours that you would not notice if you were not hunting for them each day.
He has done a great job at capturing different colours, often where the sky melds into the ocean. Other times he photographs the same scene at different times of the day, and some of the colours caught are outstanding, perhaps colours that you would not notice if you were not hunting for them each day.
December 23, 2012
This beautiful book with thoughtful photographs has made my summer in Cape Cod seem further relegated to the past. I am prone to nostalgia, and although these photographs were taken in the late 1970's there is a true familiarity to them from my time on the Cape only 2 1/2 years ago. The attention to varying degrees of light, both natural and man made is an intriguing aspect of the book. The forward / intro essays, done as interviews between colleague friends explain much of the artists intention and what the viewer may notice. These are simply photos from the analogue days of not immediately knowing what may turn out once exposed, and have a feel of truth that isn't found anymore when everyone walks with a camera on their phone or in their back pocket, a moment of truth that shows that no one is showing off in hopes of a camera, or trapped for fear that a camera is lurking - and a feel that the camera showed up at just the right moment to capture joy and truth that couldn't happen unless life has that room to breathe.
August 30, 2016
An extraordinary body of work by one of the greatest masters of recent photography. I only hope that reproductions in my paperback version are as good as in hardcover. However, I can't wait to lay my eyes on some of the originals. Someday.
My favourite plates: 15, 22, 25, 29, 33 and 34. Some of them look like Turner or Rothko. Amazing.
My favourite plates: 15, 22, 25, 29, 33 and 34. Some of them look like Turner or Rothko. Amazing.
July 10, 2010
Beautifully done - perfect photos for a Marblehead summers day!
December 10, 2012
This is my book for photography inspiration.
January 10, 2019
Gorgeous re-issue of a classic photography book that perfectly captures the kind of light that seems to only happen on Cape Cod. (A wonderful gift to receive!)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews