Eric Meola

Describing photographer Eric Meola's new book "FIERCE BEAUTY: Storms of the Great Plains," musician Bruce Springsteen wrote: "Eric Meola and I took a trip to the American Southwest to take some photos for my album Darkness on the Edge of Town. As usual, Eric caught some great pictures but what he really captured was something in the sky and in the lay of the land that deeply revealed the grandeur and the character of the country. This book extends that narrative, and reaches something profound."

Eric Meola studied color printing and color theory at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Journalism before graduating in 1968 with a B.A. in English Literature.

Eric’s prints are in several private collections and museums, and he has won numerous awards including the “Advertising Photographer of the Year” award in 1986 from the American Society of Media Photographers. Showcasing a portfolio of his color images in its October 2008 issue, Rangefinder magazine referred to Eric as one of a “handful of color photographers who are true innovators.”

One of his most famous images, “Coca Kid,” which was included in Life magazine’s special 1997 issue “100 Magnificent Images,” as well as the ASMP archive at the International Center of Photography. His Time cover portrait of opera singer Beverly Sills is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery; and in 1989 he was the only photographer named to Adweek magazine’s national “Creative All-Star Team." He has lectured extensively, including at Syracuse University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Brooks (Santa Barbara), the Art Center at Pasadena, Parsons, the Academy of Art College (San Francisco), the George Eastman Museum.

In the spring of 2014 he received the “Power of the Image” George Eastman award.

In the past seven years he has been chasing storms, and a book of these images titled “FIERCE BEAUTY: Storms of the Great Plains” will be published in October 2019.