Stephen Shore: the heroic articulation of the real

June 17, 2008

American Surfaces by Stephen Shore, book teaser at photo-eye.

"The heroic articulation of the real", this is how photography historian Gerry Badger defined the photography of Stephen Shore. A great definition for a style of photography for which Stephen Shore became a pioneer and innovator. Few days ago I was happy to receive my copy of the new print of Stephen Shore's book, American Surfaces, published by Phaidon.

This is a formal description of the book by the publisher:

The book is comprised of a chronological sequence of photographs of vernacular America taken in the early 1970s, most of which are previously unpublished. These photographs have been widely exhibited and discussed throughout Europe and the United States. AMERICAN SURFACES is styled as a photo-diary of Shore's travels across America, bridging the gap between the road trip tradition of Walker Evans and Robert Frank and the fascination with the ordinary exhibited by Bernd and Hilla Becher and Martin Parr.

What the "official" description doesn't convey is that this is a series that compose a unique piece of work, revolutionary in ways that perhaps it is difficult to grasp today given that the work was first exhibited in 1972. At the time, formal fine art photography was very much dictated by "rigid" rules of composition and aesthetics, with prints elegantly framed and exhibited. These images broke many rules of formal composition, appearing to be snapshots rather than "fine art" images, and were exhibited as small glossy prints, of the kind that anyone could get at the photo store after a vacation.

What turns to me more remarkable is that the casual look of the images defines a distinct portrait of America in the seventies, so real and so tangible that the subjects come to live, with an immediacy that formal compositions would have never achieved. One by one, as isolated images they could be easily forgotten, but as a set, this is one of the most remarkable series that there is.

For anyone who likes the work of Stephen Shore, you will find in this publication the work of this photographer with his unmistakable style, in a beautiful book with the high quality one expect from Phaidon.

A final reference to Stephen Shore, a recent and very interesting interview of the photographer by Darius Himes that I found reading Conscientious.

Miguel Garcia-Guzman

Posted in Books, Photography