From Hundred Heroines:
Celebrating a decade of bringing some of the world’s leading artists to France, Portrait(s) festival returns to the spa city of Vichy again this year, from 24th June. Alongside a series of indoor exhibitions in Le Palais des Congrès de Vichy, the programme will expand into the outdoors, situating the global-facing programme at the heart of local life.
Such an arrangement befits the enigmatic photography of Meryl Meisler – one of the leading women in photography today – whose images embody the spirit of their milieu.An acclaimed documentarian, Meryl began her career under the tutelage of Cavalliere Ketchum and the legendary photographer Lisette Model. Her images are ‘time-capsules’ of New York in the 1970s, illustrating everything from vibrant nights at the disco and strip-tease clubs, to iconic fashion, to everyday life in the city.
Born in the South Bronx, raised in Long Island, and spending decades working in New York’s public schools, Meryl possesses an empathic relationship with the communities she photographed. It was only after her retirement from teaching in 2010 that she began to release her photographic archive – a vast oeuvre which reveals her singular, ‘quirky’ vision.