"Meryl Meisler: Street Photography and Boogie Nights (Part 1)"

[00:00:04] February 14, 1977, on my end, it was going to be this big party at the Copacabana. The Coyotes Hookers Masquerade Ball. And I talked my way into it. I wrote to them and I showed up in a costume. And it was my first big disco experience. And I loved it. I loved it. And I photographed the night away. And from right after there, I went to Mardi Gras. On the way back on the bus, I met Judy.

[00:00:34] And so when the disco scene started exploding, she initially called up publicists for Studio 54. And we went in and showed them contact sheets and got us on the list as photographers. Another photographer whose work that really inspired me when I was studying photography was Versailles. His photographs of the nightlife in Paris. And when I was going out, I go, this is my Paris of the 30s.

[00:01:03] Inspired by Versailles, I'd want my camera on the wall. Most of the times. I wish I'd done it all the times. I didn't go down all the times, but many times. Greetings and welcome back to the show. If someone had told a young girl from Long Island that one day people would be exhibiting her photographs of family life, New York streets and wild disco nights,

[00:01:33] she probably would have laughed. Thankfully, she kept taking pictures anyway and has the negatives to prove it. I'm Tom Jacob and this is the Camera Cafe Show. Today folks, I'm joined by Meryl Meisler, a photographer whose work has become a colorful and deeply personal time capsule of New York life. Best known today for her street photography and photographs of the 70s disco era, Meryl has spent decades documenting the people around her, never imagining that these everyday moments would one day find their way into books,

[00:02:02] galleries and museum walls all over the world. In this first part of our conversation, we go back to where it all began. We talk about growing up on Long Island, receiving her first camera, the influence and importance of family, discovering photography and finding her way through the streets, neighborhoods and dance floors of New York during the 1970s. Along the way we visit Studio 54, Paradise Garage, family gatherings and the everyday moments that eventually become some of her most

[00:02:30] beloved photographs. Because while this is certainly a conversation about street photography and boogie nights, it's also a story about curiosity, memory and the simple act of paying attention to people and places around us. And next week in part 2, we pick up the story as Meryl's pictures begin their unexpected journey from boxes of negatives to books, exhibitions around the globe and a whole new chapter in her photographic life. Grab a coffee, settle in and enjoy part 1 of my wonderful conversation

[00:02:58] with the amazing Meryl Meisler. Today we're heading off into a version of New York filled with disco lights, wild nights and unforgettable characters. We talk with somebody who was really there. Meryl, it's a pleasure to have you on the show today. Nice to be here. Very nice to see you too. I'm very excited to be on the show with you. Meryl, you were recently in Ireland. Your wife is from

[00:03:23] Ireland and I was going to buy a Guinness, but I didn't find one so I will have a little whiskey. It's the best next thing I was trying to do this interview. Oh, okay. And I'm having a cup of coffee. And I'm talking to you from Woodstock, New York, even though this one says Virginia. Yeah. So who talks more, Meryl? New Yorkers or Irish people in a pub after two Guinness?

[00:03:49] I do think Irish people talk more. Or there's a lot of Irish in New York, but I definitely, there is definitely a, as I say, the gift for gab or friendly conversation. They're good talkers. Or maybe they're on par. They're definitely a vocal and friendly, in my impression. Do you feel at home there in Ireland, Meryl?

[00:04:13] I felt I could be at home in Ireland. Absolutely. It was a treat because it was a vacation, but I felt like it was very drinkable and familiar. Also a little exotic, but I felt like I could fit in here. Nice. What's one thing that in your life instantly makes your day better?

[00:04:37] What makes my day better? A good night's sleep, breakfast, bebasid nutrients. It's my day special is when I am photographing and I feel like I'm in the groove. The act of photography definitely lifts me. But there are many things that might be the sun,

[00:05:03] appreciation of having a roof over my head, to have a family, to have everything. It's an appreciation of life. You're good at cooking? Am I a good cook? Uh, no, you can eat with me. No, I can find I'm not known for my cuisine. I follow a recipe or I wing it on my own. I'm okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. My wife features you better cook, but she likes when I cook too. You see, it works out. Yeah.

[00:05:33] It works out. I'm not, I'm not the chef extraordinaire in any way. Are you a good cook? Yeah, I have to say I'm a good cook. Yes. Okay. What's your specialty? Any kind of Spanish food if you like it? Oh, I love it. I, yeah. You just heard it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm coming over. I'm coming over. I'm okay. You know what? I'm better than I say that I am. Okay. I'm better than I say I'm okay. I have my

[00:05:58] things, but I'm not extraordinary. We can't all be gifted everywhere and everything. No, it's true. We will meet up sometime in New York and we will do a cooking contest, Meryl. Or Spain. Come to Spain. Or Spain. Yeah, fine. Or anywhere. Meryl, growing up in Long Island, what kind of girl were you? What kind of girl was I? You were, yeah, quiet or you were dramatic?

[00:06:22] I was a very, I was a good kid. I was, I think I was really easy to raise. Not a troublemaker. Definitely got less trouble than my brothers. I was a good girl. I was a good girl. A nice Jewish girl from Long Island. I really was honest, stole once, got in trouble. I did my chores.

[00:06:44] I tried to make peace, have made lifelong friends that I'm still friends with. I was a nice kid. Could I have done better in school? Yeah, I could have done better. I think I could have done better. But I was a good kid. Yeah. What do you remember most vividly from this time? Oh, what do I remember most? God.

[00:07:06] Oh, even though there was friction between my parents, it was also very loving. They'd be divorced later on, but they were actually a very loving family and loved their children very much. I liked our house. I liked my friends on the block. Yeah, I fought with my older brother when we were kids, but they became very good friends.

[00:07:30] And how close we were to my family who lived in the city still, my aunt and uncle and cousin and my grandparents. We'd go to them every weekend or they'd come to us. The block was full of kids my age. We had a little North Massapeo Girls Club. I'm still close with these people. They may live in California. They might live in Wisconsin. We're still best friends, even if we don't see each other.

[00:07:59] And currently, I just have work and a show in the Long Island Museum out further out in Long Island. And two of my friends that I've known, one since third grade and one since seventh grade, they came with their husbands. And both of them, I was their bridesmaid at their weddings. And I also had a very active, I knew at the time how fortunate I was to have a very enriched childhood.

[00:08:29] I was in a class for children who were gifted. So I had a very progressive education in elementary school. I had a very, I'd say wholesome childhood. Lots of humor also in your family life? I come from a heritage of humor. Yes. And my family and my friends, there was a lot of laughter.

[00:08:58] A lot of really good humor. And later on when I, photographically wise, when I was introduced to the work of Henri Lartique and how funny his family pictures are, that's immediately what I wanted to photograph that I really, the people I knew in my life and my parents and their friends. And if you're like, they really had a great sense of humor. Have a great sense of humor. Even if they're gone. They were very funny people.

[00:09:28] Naturally. It was a real zest for life. Even though then life was not always easy. Yeah. But you come over very joyful. We are talking five minutes and I like it already. Oh, thank you. It's going to be wonderful. So let me remember your grandfather. He was, or he liked photography. Yes. Because you lost all the pictures. Then your uncle also and you have the ones of your father. Okay. This is my dad, Jack Weisler.

[00:09:57] No, the pictures are not lost. I have, just yesterday, I have albums by him, physical albums. Okay. And I have his negatives. And just yesterday, because I'm straightening things out, I just found an envelope just full of his early negatives. So he held on to them. I have his photographs. Mm-hmm. Many of them. My father's father, Murray Meisler, I did not see his photographs that much during his lifetime.

[00:10:27] And then when he passed away, my father got his camera. We don't know where his photographs are. It was almost just the act of photographing us enough. I have his cameras. I gave some of them to my nephews. That's part of it. But there were a few photographs. But sweaty. But it was definitely his, something that gave him pleasure.

[00:10:56] And he had emotional difficulties. But there was something he did in how he communicated with the world. Something he enjoyed. And even my uncle, my father's older brother, Al, he was always photographing. And when he retired, they moved down to Florida. They threw away a lot of the pictures. It's okay. So it wasn't always precious that my father did put his work in albums.

[00:11:24] And did save his work. Some of it was thrown away, but I seemed to have a whole lot of it. Okay? And it's really good. Nice. It was really good. It definitely established my style. Very straightforward. Just what's important to you. And encouragement that he was glad I was interested in photography. When it started for you, Meryl?

[00:11:52] At age seven, I received a present from my parents. My birthday. A little box camera. A 620 film. And on it says, The Adventurer. And I used those pictures to take pictures. Photographs of my little brother. Including his diapers. Getting his hair cut. My friends. The kids on the block. My parents, aunts and uncles. Going on school trips. Same kind of things.

[00:12:22] And later on, my sweet 16. Same kind of things I still photograph. So that's when I started taking pictures. And I recall going with that little camera. My grandfather took my brothers and I to the Bronx Zoo. And I remember thinking, Oh, look at the light on the lion. And capturing the light. And hoping my grandfather would notice that it was special. I was conscious of the light on the lion.

[00:12:52] And it wasn't until I was going on to graduate school. After college, I was taking photographs. Like people do. Binaculate photographs of things in their lives that they want to record. I took a serious introduction to photography class. And so there was. This was in the University of Wisconsin, no? That you took with coffee. I cut ketchup. My undergraduate education.

[00:13:19] I went up to Buffalo State College up in Buffalo, New York. And I became an art education major. But I didn't take photography. But when I was going on to graduate school, I took an introduction to photography class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the professor Cavalier Ketchum. And I was inspired because I had seen the Dionne Arvis show the year before. And I just thought it would be interesting on how to,

[00:13:49] I'd like to learn how to use a real camera. Rather than taking pictures with me. Then I was using Instamatic and sending it out. And it was like... And what did he talk about your pictures when you showed him? What did my professor talk about my pictures? Yeah. Initially, I was not a photo major, so I wasn't his chosen. A few people. Someone else who just took that taken in class.

[00:14:19] And initially, photographs around Wisconsin, you know, point things out, suggest which to develop. But when I came back my first semester and I went home, and inspired by the Lartig photographs of his family, I started photographing myself, family and friends, and developed a film, made contact sheets. And I remember him looking at it and goes, What is this? I said, What do you mean?

[00:14:47] These places, these homes. I've never seen anything like them. I said, This is where I come from. Everyone's homes look like this. And he pointed out some of the funny things, humorous things that I did photographs with my friends, and we posed them. But he also talked about the environment, what was in the photograph, what you show in the background. Because Capocleer had lived in New Mexico

[00:15:16] for many decades, I think. And he photographed the people of the Hispanic community who come from other countries. And he said that when people come, they have objects that kind of talks about their lives and their culture and their heritage and included in the environment. And that showed up in my photographs as well. So I became much more conscious, though it seems I was initially from the start,

[00:15:46] conscious of designing the whole landscape, the interior landscape. So I didn't know that I had an unusual upbringing. Or people with a different sense of style than other places. And it encouraged me to continue doing. I immediately, every vacation, I would do more self-portraits, photographs of friends, family,

[00:16:15] and initially interior photographs, but have people I knew and loved my whole life. Some of those little, those two little girls that I just saw last week. They were like my first subjects or their parents. So very sweet. All these people, they say that comes Meryl again with her camera? Sometimes, especially when my, in my family, it's like, my mother would say, enough with the pictures. I'll do so much.

[00:16:46] Yeah, yeah. I realized there was something I liked. But it's nice, Meryl, because by doing this, you have all these memories of her now. Yes. And everyone, like cousins that are in the pictures, friends, they get a kick out of it. I will say, and this is really nice, that in all the series, the different series of my photographs, anyone who has found themselves in the picture or found someone they knew or I let them know,

[00:17:15] they all like them. No one came back, watch it, picture, take it down, don't put my name in it or I'm going to sue you. Everyone's very pleased. Everyone's pleased. It brings back happy memories. Or they, I certainly wasn't laughing at anyone. We were laughing together. So it's, it's very sweet. Even strangers who have found someone they knew and said, oh, you really captured my uncle so well.

[00:17:44] And that's really nice. This 60s and 70s hairstyle they had with the clothes? It's just style. And I'll come back again. It's just a style. It's wonderful to see. Styles come and go and they come back again. And if anything, they were just living their lives and doing it with this, with flair. But even photographs like talking to the streets of Bushwick when it was a poor neighborhood.

[00:18:14] I tend to photograph people who were expressing joy. Who were showing confidence in a good moment. So they're looking good. They're looking good. Yeah. They're feeling good. Yeah, I know. They look amazing. Meryl, then you came back from college. You went back to New York and you studied with Lisette Model. Yes. I never lived in New York City, but my dad's business

[00:18:43] was in New York City, in Manhattan. And obviously, I had a family in the Bronx. But I, in 1975, I finished my master's degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison. I could have gone on for an MFA. But I wanted, Lisette Model was alive and well and teaching at what we call Parson, the Ashton New School. And I, Yeah. wanted to study with her. And I brought a portfolio

[00:19:12] of my work and was admitted into her class. And same time, a distant cousin of mine's family owned a brownstone in the up west side. And one of their roommates was going away for a while. So I sublet her room. And as soon as I moved to New York, New York City, I knew I fit in there. It was right for me. It always felt like home. And again, I could see myself in Dublin.

[00:19:42] I could see a lot of places, but I feel very fortunate that I feel very much at home in New York City and with the privilege and good fortune to also have a country home. Because the city is intense and it's nice to have a change. I'm very fortunate, but if I had to choose one, I'd live in my little apartment in New York City. Get rid of all my stuff. Send it to you in Barcelona. Meryl, I think Lizette, she told you you had to present

[00:20:12] your pictures to John Sarkowski at MoMA and you didn't do it. So what held you back? It went on the first interview. My court quality was a big line of people picking up and there were photographs of my Long Island friends and family. One of these pictures, I can send it to show you. which she picked it up to show it to everyone in the line applying to be in her class and says, you should show your work to John Sarkowski.

[00:20:42] And I never did. Then and now, I'm actually shy. I need to be outgoing and you can be shy at the same time. And I guess I wanted to be handheld into that. I never showed my work to him. Yes, I regret. I regret. But then again, I'm alive and well now. So I'm going forth and it would be a dream to be, to show my work in a place like MoMA someday. I'm looking forward to it.

[00:21:13] Lessons learned is when someone says yes something, do it. But I guess I probably wanted to say, would you introduce me? But I didn't do it. See, I didn't do it. But however, that positive reaction by someone who I admired so much, who only said very positive things about my work and always talked about the story in it, the image,

[00:21:43] not about the technique or through this kind of lighting. It was everything just set me on my path to keep going. and I only took one class with her, but it was very important to me because it set me on with confidence that I was like, this is how I like to photograph and going after the things that attract me. I did take other classes of the sense and again,

[00:22:13] it would be like how to do writing, how to do this. It's like, they didn't interest me. They didn't interest me. So I did not pursue photography as the way I supported myself. It was always my art form. But I certainly would welcome it. I didn't always knew no matter how I took a picture of somebody, they didn't end up coming out funny because that's how I saw them. I saw funny. But I also never stopped. I'm glad

[00:22:42] because you can get a lot of rejections and just stop. And I continued and I showed work, mostly photography with mixed media and discovering later on when I retired that my pure photo riffs just hunted themselves. Straight pure photo riffs. They're delightful and they're historic and people

[00:23:12] find relevance and now I have so much to go through. Very lucky. But now you jumped all over the exciting part. You jumped over the disco years. So you met Judy Jupiter on the bus. Well, you really did your research. Thank you. You did. You obviously really went through this. Yes. And then you hit all the legendary clubs. Studio 54, Paradise, Garage, Lemus,

[00:23:41] Copacabana. What Judy brought out in you in those years? I met Judy Jupiter in New Orleans. Okay, I'm going to go backtrack. I remember exactly today, February 14, 1977, Bob Edelman, a photographer I was taking another class with, said there was going to be this big party at the Copacabana. And I, Coyotes, Hookers, Masquerade, Ball, and I talked my way into it. I wrote to them

[00:24:11] and I showed up in a costume and it was my first big disco experience and I loved it. I loved it. And I photographed a night away and right after there, a few days later, I went to Mardi Gras because I was invited by a photographer named Michael Smith who was showing at International Center of Photography, traded work with me, invited me to see Mardi Gras. On the way

[00:24:40] back on the bus, I met Judy. and we first was to take pictures for men's magazines because she thought she was a good subject and we discovered she had a crush, she met somebody on the bus who was a bartender, CBGB's, and so we went to visit him at the bar. I had come back from this, I'd gone to other kinds of clothes before that, but when I went to

[00:25:10] this disco, thing at I knew I'd love this. And so we soon realized very much that we both like going out. And so when the disco scene started exploding, she initially called up publicists for Studio 54 and said we went in and showed them contact sheets and got us on the list as photographers. we never polished anything,

[00:25:40] but we had a ball and we would invent, and the doormen liked us and so would often let us in. And if they didn't, there were just so many clubs to go to. So I think we discovered, I'd say we discovered the disco scene together. And we're still friends. We are still friends. And she is more flamboyant than I am. And so I would

[00:26:09] help her make her costumes. And I would dress thematically anyway, but I'd be a little more subdued. And inspired by another photographer whose work that really inspired me when I was studying photography was Broussai, his photographs of the nightlife in Paris. And when I was going out, I go, this is my Paris of the 30s. I knew I was doing it. And so I, inspired by Broussai, I brought my camera on long

[00:26:40] most of the times. I wish I'd done it all the times. I didn't go, not all the time, but many times. And as the legend has it, I really didn't show that work until decades later, nor that I didn't even know it was that important, because there were so many photographers of the disco era. There were a lot, there were a lot there. And so I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that mine have their own flair.

[00:27:09] So there were a lot of photographers there, outside in clubs? Absolutely. There were a lot of photographers in the clubs, because the paparazzi, it was a big scene, and I was never, rarely, the only one there. And it was a lot looser than it is now. When I'm photographing now, I need to get permission. It's more private. Then, I don't think it, I didn't have to get my name on the media list,

[00:27:40] or be approved. Or, it's just my style that I would ask people permission, because it's just my comfort level. It was very open, seemed to be very open to photography. I don't think I was ever saying, I don't think anyone ever said, put the camera away, or lock it up. And then, again, people were dressed to go out and to be seen. So, there are a lot of

[00:28:09] photorrares of that era. And, I guess, mine were a surprise. Here's more. Were there moments in a club or a disco medal that you say, I have to capture this because nobody is going to believe this? I think every moment. I'm not, I'm an educated person. I know, and especially since an admirer of Arba's saying, her famous saying, besides that, you can't

[00:28:39] photograph everything, but also, I'm taking pictures of because if I didn't photograph, nobody else would see it. That's always, both things are in my mind. I'm inspired by that. And to remember and also to honor it as it's happening. But I seriously didn't know it was so good, that my work was so good. that it would have meaning now afterwards.

[00:29:09] Because when you're working in photographs, you feel like, oh, now it's old news. You didn't put your work up on Instagram about the holiday essay, oh, it's old news. But it's not, photography gets better with age, it seems. It's not a competition. A good photograph seems to stand the test of time and have, and strengthen because you can't make up the best either. I think every one of them I felt like I

[00:29:38] was definitely in a special time and place, my time and place, and worthy. And if you're shooting film photography, which I was then, and I'm back to doing now, you're much more selective. Of course, then it wasn't digital photography, but even a role, you're choosing medium format, they did have 220 film then, meaning you could have 24 on a role. Now it's only 12.

[00:30:07] It's also finance, just finance, and also just being more selective. So it's... Other people were very happy for you to see you with your camera to take their pictures? I guess if you're out, and if you think about your own life, how many times has a complete stranger come up to you and said, may I take your picture? I think that I... Me, so few. Even now,

[00:30:37] so few happens. So if you're out on the night and you're dressed up and you're feeling good and you're grooving and someone notices that, more than not, people say yes, unless... Yeah. And sometimes they say no, and I respect that. And now I've always respected that. People have a right to privacy. Isn't there

[00:31:07] a night that stands out to you, Meryl? A night that sometimes you remember that said, this was a great time, this was a great moment. I would... And it's because of my photographs. So you don't know about the past. I had a great night two weeks ago. But I would say in 1977 there was a big blackout in New York City and the world. There was a lot of... It was dark, things shut down, there were riots, there was this and that. And two weeks, around two weeks later, Studio 54 was open

[00:31:36] again and it was a birthday party for a politician, Bella Abzug, who was a female politician. She was a congresswoman at one point and it was her birthday party. It was her 57th birthday party and I thought she was so old. So we have this dark period, literal darkness and to be in this event and it was filled of interesting people, feminists because she

[00:32:06] was a feminist, journalists, star-studded as well. You're walking there's Andy Walkhall and there's Bella Abzug and there's Shirley MacLaine and there's William Shatner of Star Wars. That was fun. That was a very special night and I had the photograph to prove it. Meryl, this is all with flash in this time? Yes. How do you learn to shoot with flash? I do like to shoot straight on flash. I don't

[00:32:36] then and now. It's like natural light during the day but in nighttime in the dark, flash, Ouija, flash, flash. Yeah. It's straightforward. I would try many different styles but I keep on coming back. I know how to bounce it. I know how to do contraptions but I like the way the light folds around the person and shapes and be able to predict how the background will look.

[00:33:07] When it's successful, I think it gets it. It's sharp. I prefer it that way rather than boosting the ASA or ISO. Though it is really nice when you have your phone that you can just be anywhere and it just seems to magically figure it out. It's amazing. I like the look. I like the look. I like how it renders the human form and every detail. I was a,

[00:33:37] professionally before I became a school teacher, I was an illustrator. So I have an eye for detail. And I like how the flash brings out the details and the forms and the costumes and the backgrounds. Yeah. Now you bring up teacher. I was going to ask you, what made you become an art teacher? Originally, I'm going to go over really back when I was a freshman in college and I was, I'm of the age that most

[00:34:07] women became teachers, nurses, things like that. And I was a freshman in college and even the first week they gave you a test, like an aptitude test, what you might, interest in my P, and it said the arts or education. And then I was taking introduction to education, introduction to psychology, all these introduction classes, and I took an introduction

[00:34:36] to art for non-art majors. And even all the classes, I did very well in school. When the art professor said to me, afterwards, he said, did you ever think about becoming an art major? My heart beat. It went, it pounded. And I called my parents, and at that time, making a phone call was very expensive, long distance, so we'd call 11 o'clock a night,

[00:35:06] or Sundays, and I said, I'd like to become an art major. He said, I'm the one condition, you get a teaching degree so you can always make 11. I did. I was scared to teach. I was nervous to teach. And when I went on to graduate school, I was accepted as an art education major, and I switched into straight art, drawing illustration being my major. I became a teacher

[00:35:35] because being a freelance illustrator, you do the work, and you're always waiting for the check to come in the mail. Your bills came more steady than the check. And then at one point, from 78 and 79, I did get a grant where I made a living as a photographer for a program called CETA, C-E-T-A, the Comprehensive Employment Training Act. In the United States, it was a program called the WPA during the Depression where artists were employed to

[00:36:05] do public art. This was like the WPA of the 70s, and I was employed by the American Jewish Congress, non-her-profit, to document Jewish New York, to help make one of three artists making an archive, and also to explore my own family roots. I also, it was the first time I had a regular paycheck coming in, and it was very flexible, my hours, I had to count things. It was great.

[00:36:35] I liked having a regular paycheck, and I also, I needed to do community service work, and I chose to do teaching, because I did have this teaching degree, but I was nervous to teach. When CETA ended, and I was on unemployment, I didn't want to just go back to freelance life, because everyone's different. I liked

[00:37:04] the security of having a city paycheck, and so I used my experience from teaching at CETA with a portfolio, and started teaching in the public schools, initially for two years, four days a week, that means part-time, and in the United States, you don't have healthcare unless you have unemployment. It's like, there was no healthcare, no unemployment, no anything like that, no sick days, and so I

[00:37:33] became a full-time teacher, because I wanted healthcare, building up to a pension like I have now, all those things, and so that's how I became a teacher. You make a lot more money doing other things, but for, I personally wanted that stability, and then I also found it interesting, and I found my gift in it as well. Yeah. I'm a very good teacher. But no more

[00:38:03] disco nights than metal? They slowed down. My disco nights slowed down. I also became involved in relationships. My girlfriend, Patricia, moved to New York to begin a life together, together. So I said, I'm really able to and I was still a couple. We were married a couple. So getting up at six in the morning to teach, plus being in a new relationship. In fact, when Patricia first moved to New York, when we were dating, she was living in San Francisco

[00:38:32] at the time, we would go clubbing, but I was on a date, so I didn't bring my camera, so even though I went to the mud club, I don't have pictures of that. I didn't know I was making an archive for the I just knew that I was going out at night and bringing my camera because this is fascinating. So it slowed down. I was working, and I was in a relationship, and then there was

[00:39:02] an epidemic called AIDS, so it would just change for me. Other people didn't go out. I also didn't say, oh, I'm in my 30s, do I want to be the old lady in the disco? Yeah. And that wraps up part 1 of my talk with Meryl Meiser, folks. How was that for a conversation so far about photography? I never met Meryl before our talk, but I can honestly say she genuinely stands out as one of those people who immediately makes you feel

[00:39:31] comfortable. Warm, funny, curious, full of stories, she's exactly the kind of art teacher I would have loved to have in school. And perhaps that's also part of what makes her photographs so special, whether she's photographing family gatherings, New Year's Treats, or while Disco Nights, there's a sense that she genuinely enjoys people. Next week we continue the story and discover what happened when decades of photographs quietly stored away in boxes of negatives began finding their way into books, exhibitions around the world, and a whole new chapter of Meryl's life.

[00:40:02] If you would like to see more of her work, learn more about her projects or upcoming events, you can find everything back in our show notes. And of course, folks, if you enjoyed this episode, have a look at our website and don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and follow us on any podcast platform or on YouTube. Until next week, keep shooting and keep on moving your own photography. I see you here soon for part two of this wonderful conversation with Meryl Meisler. Adios!