Photorealism is a genre of painting that developed in the United States and Europe using high-resolution photography as its primary source material. Embracing digital photography perhaps more than any other artist working in this genre, French-born Bertrand Meniel (1961–) is able to incorporate an astonishing amount of detail into his renderings of cityscapes in New York City, Miami, and Paris.
Primarily self-taught and with no preliminary experimental, developmental, or student work, by 1996 Meniel was creating works with powerful, distinctive, and very original imagery, having mastered techniques and skills that normally require a lifetime. Using a variety of photographs of his chosen subject, he manipulates an image to perfection, focusing simultaneously on the foreground and background by combing hundreds of shots on a computer screen.
His choice to depict iconic American scenes in his paintings, particularly those associated with the “American Way of Life,” reflects not just a technical mastery of Photorealism but a deep emotional connection to the culture that captivated him during his youth. His unique perspective, influenced by French artistic traditions and shaped by exposure to American pop culture, allows him to capture in his art the essence of what may be best described as the “New York State of Mind.”

Louis Meisel is an American author, art collector, and dealer, as well as a pro­ponent of the Photorealist art movement. He has contributed to four volumes documenting the genre, numerous monographs, and he continues to organize international museum exhibitions for leading Photorealist artists. Otto Letze is the director emeritus of the Institute for Cultural Exchange in Tübingen, Germany. He is the author and editor of numerous essays, catalogues, and books on international art, and culture. Terrie Sultan is an independent curator, cultural consultant, and Principal Museum Strategist for Art Museum Strategies @ Hudson Ferris. She was the director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, as well as the director of The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston in Texas.

Artist’s Statement
Bertrand Meniel 9
Foreword
Louis K. Meisel 17
Introduction
Bertrand Meniel and His Photorealistic Artworks
Otto Letze 21
Bertrand Meniel: The Observation of Things
Terrie Sultan 33
Plates 59
Acknowledgments 155
Chronology 157
Exhibitions 161
Collections 164
Bibliography 165
Photography Credits 167

My painting offers a reality that is familiar yet seems unknown: when we are on a street, our eyes accommodate to various objects, various picture planes; we turn our head right and left, and all that creates a landscape in our brain. But how real is the memory we have of it? Our memory is unfaithful. I want my painting to recreate the physical emotion I experienced, what motivated me to make the picture. However, I don't always know what triggered the emotion, which detail, color, shape, volume, or was it the combination of all.