Revisiting 'Cape Light': Joel Meyerowitz and the Legacy of Color Photography

In the opening image of Joel Meyerowitz’s Cape Light, sand meets the Atlantic under a pale sky. The tones feel tangible—mauve bleeding into salmon-pink, punctuated by the shadow of a lifeguard stand. Originally published in 1979, the collection has been reissued by Eakins Press Foundation in 2023, a testament to its enduring resonance. Printed on velvety, semi-matte stock, the new edition mirrors the softness of the original while enhancing tonal fidelity, as Meyerowitz oversaw the color corrections.

The photographs within Cape Light—forty color plates spanning Provincetown and Cape Cod—embody a quiet radicality. At its first release, color photography occupied the periphery of serious art discourse. Monochrome, with its perceived timelessness, dominated institutions like MoMA. Meyerowitz, alongside William Eggleston, challenged this dominance, asserting that color evokes both the tangible world and its emotional tenor. In 1981, Meyerowitz told ARTnews, "color describes more than the surface; it describes spirit."

Cape Light debuted alongside Eggleston’s exhibition at MoMA in 1976. John Szarkowski, then director of photography, took a calculated risk with