Meryl Meisler

Meryl Meisler, born in 1951, grew up on Long Island, New York. Born into a Central European Jewish family, she began photography in the 1970s, inspired by Diane Arbus and Jacques Henri Lartigue. At the age of 24, she moved to New York. She studied with Lisette Model and worked as a freelance illustrator. In those years, she assiduously frequented Manhattan nightclubs, where she witnessed the disco explosion. During these wild evenings, she danced and photographed the city's nightlife.

In the early 1980s, she became an art teacher at a public school in Bushwick. She photographed this poor, crime-ridden Brooklyn neighborhood, and saw the birth of the hip-hop movement. Throughout these years, Meryl Meisler also documented the lives of those closest to her, at family dinners and festive gatherings, as well as the members of the "Mystery Club", a group of friends created by her parents who get together for unusual outings.

After retiring from the public schools, Meryl Meisler set about promoting her work. She published her first monograph in 2014, entitled A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick (ed. Bizarre). Meryl Meisler still lives and works in New York. Her work has won numerous awards and been exhibited worldwide.