For 18 years now, I have been photographing on the streets of New York City almost on a daily basis. After all this time, I still remain fascinated by the life on New York’s sidewalks.
When I photograph, I try to express the irony, the humor,
or the mystery that I find in the most complex city in the world.

Jeff Mermelstein, a New Jersey native now based in New York City, was educated at Rutgers College in New Brunswick (New Jersey) and at the International Center of Photography, New York City. He is active both in commercial and artistic circles. Also, he is currently teaching photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City.

Mermelstein’s incisive documentary work has garnered him important awards in Europe and the U.S. including the European Publishers Award for Photography (1999)
and the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship (1991). Additionally, Mermelstein’s work has been profiled in a host of publications such as American Photography, Aperture, Communication Arts, Elle (UK), GEO, GQ, Leica World, Life, Mirabella, MODA (Italy), National Geographic Traveler, Newsweek, PHOTO (France),
The London Sunday Times Magazine (UK), The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue (Spain), Wired and many more.
Recent exhibitions include Air Conditioned—Interiors Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York (July 2000), Eight Million Stories New York Public Library (1999), Photo Forum Houston Museum of Fine Arts (1998) and SideWalk a solo show at
Galerie Colette in Paris and Galleria Minima Peliti in Rome. In 1999, a book, SideWalk, was published by Dewi Lewis.
His work is part of numerous collections: International Center of Photography, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Princeton University Art Museum,
The Jewish Museum in New York and The New York Public Library.

Jeff Mermelstein is represented by the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York.