“A precious document of a lost world and time.” —Guy Trebay, New York Times“If extraterrestrials asked me to convey the nature of human beings, I’d show them Joel Meyerowitz’s dazzling array of portraits. I can think of no better testament to the joy, the beauty, the sheer force of our lives here on Earth.” —Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The HoursThe beach town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, has long been defined by outsiders. A safe haven for the queer community and a getaway for artists, it is a place defined by openness and tolerance. Throughout the late 1970s and early ’80s, Joel Meyerowitz spent his summers there, roaming the seaside with an 8-by-10 camera, making exquisite, sharply observed portraits of families, couples, children, artists, and other denizens of the progressive community. A cast of characters appear and reappear from season to season against a picturesque backdrop of sea, sand, and sun. Provincetown collects one hundred portraits, most never before published, bringing viewers into an idyllic world of self-styled individualism.
