All images © Eric Meola
 |
| Caravan at Sunset |
For the past 30 years, Eric Meola has
been highly successful in both commercial photography and in bringing
his personal projects to life. His editorial images have appeared in Life, Travel and Leisure, and Esquire,
and his corporate clients include Canon, Nikon, IBM, Kodak, American
Express, AT&T and Jeep. He’s been honored with awards from the New
York Art Director’s Club, Communication Arts magazine,
and ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers). He has photographed
Bruce Springsteen for the cover of his classic Born to Run album, and
Meola’s new book, Born to Run—the Unseen Images, will be available in September. His previous monograph, entitled The Last Places on Earth, explores remote cultures around the globe. Meola is also a popular speaker in Canon’s Explorer of Light program.
Meola first became interested in photography at age 14 after one of his
father’s medical patients taught him how to shoot and process his
images. The first time he saw a print come up in the developer, Meola
recalls, “I was hooked. I knew instantly that I wanted to become a
photographer.” He
 |
| Chopper & Glass |
worked at a local pharmacy where he earned enough
money to build his own darkroom, bought a 35mm SLR and a few lenses,
and began taking pictures. In 1968, he graduated from Syracuse
University in New York with a B.A. in English Literature. “But halfway
through college, the handwriting was on the wall that I was going to be
a photographer,” he says.
Initial Breaks
When Meola moved to New York City, he admired photographer Pete
Turner’s colorful, graphic images. He assisted Turner for 18 months
between 1969 and ’70. “We decided at the outset that this was about how
long I would stay,” he explains, adding that Turner has been
influential in the use of saturated color and graphic design in his own
photography. Other influences include Jay Maisel, and to a greater
extent, Ernst Haas—“They’re very different photographers with their use
of color and graphics.” Meola says he’s also been influenced by Robert
Frank and Irving Penn. “Their work appealed to me, and to some extent,
it’s rubbed off in very subtle ways,” he states.
Meola struck out on his own in the early ’70s, and recalls that opening
his own studio was difficult at first. However, he landed an assignment
to photograph opera singer Beverly Sills for the cover of TIME early
on. “Another big break came in 1976, when an art director from Doyle,
Dane & Bernbach gave me an assignment to shoot a campaign for
Porsche and Audi.” TIME also sent him to Haiti, and a photo from that
shoot was published in Zoom, a French photo magazine. “An art director
from Sweden saw those pictures and hired me to go around the world
shooting coffee plantations.”
 |
| Promised Land |
Following His Instincts
Another pivotal point occurred in 1975, when Meola was asked to
photograph the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s popular "Born to Run" album.
“I used to live around the corner from Max’s Kansas City in Manhattan,”
he says. “I was on 18th Street and had listened to Bruce’s music since
1973.” He found out that Springsteen would be playing at Max’s one
evening and decided to catch the show. “I saw him perform and was
completely blown away. From that moment, I really wanted to find out
more about this guy,” he says. Meola was also very involved with his
commercial photography at the time, and traveled
 |
| Bison in an Ice Storm |
frequently on
assignment. Nonetheless, he found the time to go to several Springsteen
concerts. “I ran into him under the awning of the Plaza Hotel after the
concert in Central Park, and shyly introduced myself as a fan,” he
says. After this introduction, Springsteen recognized Meola at his
concert in New Jersey and several other venues. “Little by little, I
started pulling my camera out and shooting a few pictures,” Meola says.
“I emphasize to students today that they’ve got to follow their own
instincts,” he states. “It sounds easy looking back, but I turned down
several jobs because I took the time to shoot pictures of Springsteen
and his band.” Meola photographed Springsteen in black-and-white—as he
thought that it suited the subject better—although his work is
primarily color. Then in early 1975, he got a call from the band’s
manager saying that they wanted Meola to
 |
| Monastery |
shoot pictures for an album
cover. When Bruce and Clarence Clemons finally came to his studio, he
says, “I shot about 20 rolls in two hours.” One of those images became
the cover of Born to Run. The other images from that shoot will appear
in Meola’s book, Born to Run: The Unseen Photos, which will be
available in late September 2006. Meola plans to donate all of his
earnings from this book to Springsteen’s favorite charity, the
Community Food Bank of New Jersey. “It’s sort of a way to pay him back,
and it’s amazing to think that there are places in this country where
people have very little food,” he explains.
A Spiritual Journey
About 10 years ago, Meola attended an International Center of
Photography awards banquet where he talked to a woman from Eastman
Kodak. “She asked me very point-blank what it is I wanted to shoot. I
just blurted out that I wanted to do a book about ‘The Last Places on
Earth,’ and I had no idea
 |
| Fall Mountains |
where that came from. I think I had it in the
back of my mind for years,” he says. The woman asked where these last
places were and how long the trip would take. “The next thing I knew,
she said, ‘why don’t you come to Rochester and meet with me and some
people about this idea.’” Thus, Kodak sponsored this ambitious project.
Meola had traveled to Burma on a personal trip several months before
the Last Places project got started, “and it was a very spiritual
awakening for me,” he notes. “Without realizing it, these two events
had sort of coincided.” The book, he adds, started evolving into a
personal diary about spirituality, instead of an attempt to document
each and every “last place on earth.” Meola observes, “I think the
‘last places’ are different things to different people.” Although he
traveled intermittently on this spiritual journey, it actually took
about a year of his life.
 |
| Coca Cola Kid |
An Evolving Photographic Environment
Today, Meola uses only Canon digital SLRs—the EOS 1DS Mark II and 5D
are his primary cameras. Occasionally, he uses a Canon EOS 1V, but
isn’t shooting film much at all these days. As for lenses, “I’m using
anything and everything,” he says, which includes an EOS 100–400mm
zoom, the new 24–105mm zoom, 70–200mm, and 16–35mm. In terms of
lighting, he’s primarily working on his own projects, and doesn’t rely
on flash—“I want my images to look as natural as possible. I’m not a
big fan of strobe and never have been.” His early commercial work,
however, was shot with strobe lighting, with the exception of his
travel images. “My personal work is mostly shot on location and I keep
my lighting to an absolute minimum.”
 |
| Half Face |
Advertising photography was once very important for Meola, up
until the time the industry began to change. “There were these mass
bidding rituals where half a dozen photographers would be asked to bid
on the same job. Then a few weeks later, all the parameters of the job
would change again. Everyone would rebid it and we’d find out that no
one got the job.” He was involved in major jobs with a lot of prep
time, “and it came down roughly to two months work for two days
shooting, and I wasn’t enjoying it in the end.” Meola says, “It was no
longer why I became a photographer.” Fees were also changing, and he
adds that the glory days in advertising where photographers made a lot
of money may never exist again.
To See a Gallery of Images by Eric Meola, Click Here
Pursuing Dreams
Going forward, Meola will have an exhibit of Bruce Springsteen images
in Birmingham, England, beginning in November. He’s also planning a
book project on India. “I’ve always wanted to go back to one of the
locations in
 |
| Steps |
Last Places, explore it in more depth, and do a book on
that one place. That spot for me is India,” he says, describing it as
an incredibly beautiful place with warm, outgoing people. Meola plans
to travel there extensively for the better part of next year. And
because he loves getting out on the road, he’d also like to do a book
about America, “but this keeps getting pushed to the back burner.” His
projects in the future, he says, will be primarily book projects.
Meola advises those who want to become professional photographers to
“really think about what you’re doing. I think a lot of people fall in
love with the idea of expressing themselves with a camera, but it’s
difficult making a living at it these days.” He adds that it’s a good
idea to do something that’s peripheral to photography, such as
teaching. He also believes in staying true to one’s self: “Follow your
dreams and don’t forget why you became a photographer. It’s okay if it
becomes big business, but don’t lose sight of that original passion.”
To see more of Eric Meola’s images, visit http://www.ericmeola.com.
Let us know if you found this article useful, and tell us what kinds of articles you'd like to see in upcoming issues. Send your comments and ideas to the editor.
© Copyright 2010 by PHOTOWORKSHOP.COM
Top of Page
Last Updated: Feb 4th, 2010 - 13:02:03
|
|
|
