Meryl meisler

Biography

Meryl was born in 1951 in the Bronx and grew up on Long Island, New York. Inspired by Diane Arbus, Jacques Henri Lartigue, her father Jack and her grandfather Murray Meisler, she studied photography with Cavalliere Ketchum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and with Lisette Model in New York. Meisler frequented and photographed New York's legendary nightclubs.

After retiring from 31 years as a New York public school art teacher, she began publishing unpublished works, including her books A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick (Bizarre, 2014), Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY '70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre, 2015) and New York PARADISE LOST: Bushwick Era Disco (Parallel Pictures Press, forthcoming 2021).

Meisler lives in New York City and Woodstock, NY. ClampArt represents his work.

And his collections have been exhibited in numerous museums and institutions.

The Best of Time, Worst of Times

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Retiring after decades as a public school art teacher, Meisler began to unearth and rethink her own archive. Part capsule of the 1970s and 1980s and part memoir, The Best of Time, Worst of Times is an invitation to join her on a wild ride: disco nights, punk bars, strip clubs, Fire Island, family, friends and neighbours, and the suburbs of Long Island. Her exuberant celebration of human connection is particularly poignant now, when we cannot take any of these encounters for granted. Meisler clearly celebrates with his subjects. These are his people: not strangers, but participants. She depicts our own shared humanity, our humour and our joy.

Documentary Photographer I www.merylmeisler.com I @merylmeisler I meryl.meisler@gmail.com

These images come from her books

"A Tale of Two Citied Disco Era Bushwick" and "Purgatory & Paradise SASSY '70s Suburbia & The City"

SASSY '70s is still available and can be purchased here: www.strandbooks.com

LightWork exhibit: www.lightwork.org

ClampArt is the gallery Meryl is represented by - www.clampart.com

Update June 2021

New York PARADISE LOST
Bushwick Era Disco

Publication of Meryl's 3rd monograph and solo exhibitions at ClampArt, New York, and the Woodstock Center for Photography, New York.

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New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco is an intimate journey into the pandemonium and paradise of New York City from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Meryl documented a tumultuous time in New York's history: epidemics of arson, crime, crack and AIDS, intensified by a crippling blackout and a political and fiscal crisis. Frequenting the legendary Manhattan nightclubs that sprang up amidst the disorder, he captured the hedonistic havens, celebrities and revelers of the night. In contrast, daylight revealed the beauty of those who loved and thrived in burnt-out Bushwick, where she was a public school art teacher who photographed what she saw.

New York PARADISE LOST Bushwick Era Disco is a true story of the resilient human spirit: the determination to preserve, revitalise, appreciate and create anew.