Stephen Shore

The nature of photographs

Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen

Lynne Tillman

Stephen Shore took colour photography beyond the domain of advertising and fashion, and his large-format American landscapes have become a vital photographic tradition over the past three decades. This book contains previously unpublished work that has never been exhibited.

The Complete Works

Uncommon Places

American Surfaces

"... an international group of artists, curators, authors, and cultural figures have selected up to ten photographs apiece from Stephen Shore's Uncoming Places archive. None of the images appear in the current edition of his landmark book of the same name; most are published here for the first time. Each suite of photographs, chosen from over four hundred newly scanned or rediscovered negatives, offers an idiosyncratic commentary on Shore's distinctive vision of America and proposes new perspectives on this seminal body of work from the 1970s and early '80s"--Page 5.

selected works 1973-1981

Uncommon Places : the Complete Works

road trip journal

Revised & Expanded Edition

Stephen Shore : American Surfaces

Looks at the physical, depletive, and mental impressions made by photographs.

The Nature of Photographs

Joel Sternfeld

Michael Fried

Christy Lange

Stephen Shore's photographs of ordinary America have had an extraordinary impact. Shore spent the 1970s crisscrossing the continent to assemble his two best known bodies of work. American Surfaces and Uncommon Places These photographs focused on the minutiae of modern life, unveiling the exceptional beauty to be found in banality and, in the process, pioneering the two most important photographic idioms of the past thirty years the diaristic snapshot (later taken up by such artists as Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans) and the monumentalized landscape (as practiced by such photographers as Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky) Shore was also one of the first art photographers to work in colour, capturing the sky blues, mustard yellows and avocado greens of a nation whose chromatic enthusiasm occasionally outstripped its taste. Less well known are Shore's earlier works While still in high school in the mid-1960s he undertook a three-year project shooting Andy Warhol's legendary studio, the Factory, at its creative peak, featuring a revolving cast of characters that included the Velvet Underground, Nico, Edie Sedgwick and of course Warhol himself Soon afterward, inspired by the intellectually fertile late-1950s New York art scene, Shore produced a body of conceptual work seldom exhibited but fully engaged with the revolutionary ideas shaking the foundations of modern art. These works are fascinating not only for their contribution to the redefinition of the art object but also for the way they prefigured much of Shore's work to fallow, including American Surfaces and Uncommon Places. Since the 1970s Shore has continued to expand his repertoire, moving effortlessly between black and white and colour, landscape and portraiture, large format and small in so doing, he has proven himself to be one of contemporary art's most vital photographers As fellow photographer Joel Sternfeld writes in the Focus section, 'What may ultimately be at stake in his pictures is the pure condition of sight itself.'

The Nature of Photographs is an essential primer of how to look at and understand photographs, by one of the world's most influential photographers, Stephen Shore. In this book, Shore explores ways of understanding photographs from all periods and all types - from iconic images to found photographs, from negatives to digital files. This books serves as an indispensable tool for students, teachers and everyone who wants to take better pictures or learn to look at them in a more informed way.

A Primer

Warhol's Factory, 1965-67

The Velvet Years

Lezione di fotografia. La natura delle fotografie

Claude Monet found inspiration in the rose-covered trellises, wild rambles of nasturtiums, and idle drift of water lilies in the gardens of Giverny outside Paris. So too did Stephen Shore who photographed the gardens one hundred years later after their painstaking restoration. Commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to photograph the renascence of the gardens, Shore visited Giverny over six years beginning in 1977. Going to the gardens before dawn and leaving after dusk, in different seasons, he came to know them in all the moods and textures that inspired Monet. Shore's fidelity to the gardens' plenitude and his desire to present the abstract beauty of nature result in exquisitely serene photographs that express the essence of Giverny.

Stephen Shore in a Conservation with Lynne Tillman

A Colorful Photographic Tribute to the Gardens Celebrated in Monet's Paintings Claude Monet found inspiration in the rose-covered trellises, the wild ramble of nasturtiums, and the idle drift of water lilies in the gardens of Giverny outside Paris. So, too, did Stephen Shore, who photographed the gardens one hundred years later, upon their painstaking restoration to the state they had enjoyed during Monet's lifetime. Originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to photograph the renaissance of the gardens, Shore visited Giverny over a period of six years beginning in 1977. Going before dawn and leaving after dusk, visiting in different seasons, he came to know the gardens in all the moods and textures that nurtured Monet. "With the sensitivity of a poet, Stephen Shore has given a new interpretation of this garden, which so enchanted Claude Monet," writes Gerald Van Der Kamp, the man in charge of spearheading the careful revival of Monet's beloved gardens. Shore's uncompromising fidelity to both the gardens' plenitude and his desire to present the abstract beauty of nature results in exquisitely serene photographs that express the essence of Giverny.

A View of Monet's World

The Gardens at Giverny

'Transparencies: Small Camera Works 1971-1979' offers an alternative account of one of the most fabled episodes in photographic history: the cross-country journeys that produced Stephen Shore's luminous new vision of the American landscape, 'Uncommon Places'. Along with his large-format camera, Shore also brought a 35mm Leica on his travels. The images made with it, on luminous colour slide film, are intimate, spontaneous and personal, while retaining Shore's studied formal sensitivity. In these entirely unseen photographs, a parallel iteration of an iconic vision emerges like a piece of music played in a new key. The vocabulary is familiar: highways and homes, phone boxes, fast food and sun-strewn parking lots. But the alternative format unmistakably re-envisions these subjects through distinct experiments with composition, attitude, and colour. Transparencies uncovers both a detail-oriented survey of the American landscape of the 1970s and a rigorous, imaginative exercise in form by an undisputed modern master. With an afterword by Britt Salvesen, curator at LACMA, titled 'Ordinary Speech: The Vernacular in Stephen Shore's Early 35mm Photography'.

Small Camera Works 1971-1979

Transparencies

Jeff Rosenheim

Stephen Shore is one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. A pioneer of colour photography, his photographs of everyday American scenes paved the way for art photographers such as Martin Parr, Nan Goldin and Thomas Struth. In the early 1970s, with his projects American Surfaces and A Road Trip Journal, Shore investigated his interest in keeping visual journals that could arrange ‘snapshots’ in conceptually based sequences. As an extension of the visual journal and intrigued by the creative potential of print-on-demand technology, in 2003 Shore started making his books using Apple’s iPhoto print-on-demand service. Each book recorded his activities during one particular day.

The Book of Books

Linda G. Rastelli

Autism affects more than 1 million children and adults in the United States, and parents may be confused by the behavior of autistic children. This book provides help-and hope-by explaining the differences between various types of autism and delivering the lowdown on behavioral, educational, medical, other interventions. Featuring inspiring autism success stories as well as a list of organizations where people who support those with autism can go for additional help, it offers practical advice on how to educate children as well as insights on helping people with autism use their strengths to maximize their potential in life. Stephen Shore, EdD (Brookline MA), serves on the board for several autism spectrum-related organizations and he has written Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome (1-931282-00-5) and edited Ask and Tell: Self Advocacy and Disclosure For People on the Autism Spectrum (1-931282-58-7). Linda G. Rastelli (Middletown, NJ) is a veteran journalist who specializes in health and business. Temple Grandin, PhD (Fort Collins, CO) is the author of the bestselling Thinking in Pictures (0-679-77289-8) and Emergence: Labeled Autistic (0-446-67182-7).

Stephen Shore

About

Books

Join the club