Photos by Meryl Meisler, Text by Tobias Salinger

Photographer Meryl Meisler gleefully transported everyone back to the past at a tiny Dominican joint the other day. The fluorescent humanity of her 1984 homage to Edward Hopper (see above) merged with the subtle sweetness of fried plantains at Cibao Restaurant over by the Myrtle-Wyckoff station.

Meryl, 61, reminisced over lunch about how her job as an art teacher at Bushwick’s IS-291 helped her capture the arresting images of resilience amid rough circumstances for which she is known.

“Looking back, I’m very conscious of the fact that I was doing positive reinforcement,” she said. “I was photographing things I found uplifting.”