Eric Meola: Travel Images since “Last Places on Earth”

Eric Meola’s (www.ericmeola.com) color images have appeared editorially in various magazines, including Life, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, and Time. In 1975 he photographed the classic cover for Bruce Springsteen’s album ‘Born to Run’.  (We are anxiously awaiting his new book ‘Streets of Fire’ – Photographs of Bruce Springsteen taken between 1977 and 1979, due out in September 2012 by HarperCollins. His prints are in several private collections and museums, including the ASMP archive, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Munich.  Eric Meola published a book in 2004 sp0nsored by Kodak titled, “The Last Places on Earth.”  We asked Eric to share with us some images that have inspired him since the publication of that wonderful book.  

Photographer Eric Meola

Eric: “Ever since my first book Last Places on Earth was published, my images have become more and more abstract.  All photographs are expected to be documentary on some level, to represent what was in from of the camera.  I’m trying to bridge the gap between what’s in front of my lens and what I see with my mind’s eye. My work has always been about color–not simply making images that are in color, but images in which the subject is the color.

BOYS PLAYING SOCCER, TAJ MAHAL
I’ve photographed the Taj many times, but got very lucky the last time I shot it. I got up before sunrise, and wandered down an embankment behind the Taj, and saw these boys playing across the Yamuna river.  I had my driver take me there, and was able to get a half dozen shots off before security guards stopped me because I was within the security perimeter.

Boys Playing Soccer, Taj Mahal by Eric Meola

FIELDS, WASHINGTON STATE
I shot this from a hilltop one cloudy afternoon as the sun peaked through and left dappled shadows and light on the lush fields of a very lush area of farmland in the southeast portion of the state called the Palouse.

Green Fields, Washington State by Eric Meola

EYJAFJALLAJöKULL VOLCANO, ICELAND
I had been photographing the volcano for several days but went out late one evening and was able to shoot this miles-long plume of ash as it drifted towards Europe, caught in the afterglow of the last rays of light from the sun which had already set.

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland by Eric Meola

UNTITLED ABSTRACT
I had just finished taking a workshop in Colorado, and had driven down to New Mexico, when I passed a car lot with a lot of old Fifties cars, rusting in the sun.  I wandered around for a few hours and made this shot of paint that hax dripped down the door of a an old pickup.

Untitled Abstract by Eric Meola

ICE CAVE, ANTARTICA
Our Zodiac driver was able to get us right up close to a large berg, and I made this image by leaning over the size and sticking my 14mm lens underneath an overhang–I literally could not see what I was shooting, so the camera was set to “auto” everything.  This is the natural light emanating from within the translucent iceberg.

Ice Cave, Antartica by Eric Meola

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