Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects [Hardcover]

Anne Tucker (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2004

Originally published in 1987, Joel Sternfeld's now-classic view of America is here remastered, redesigned, and reprinted at a larger, brighter, truer scale. Finally, photography and offset printing techniques have caught up with Sternfeld's eye, and this new edition of American Prospects succeeds in presenting Sternfeld's most seminal work as it has always meant to be shown. A specially-commissioned essay by Kerry Brougher, Chief Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, considers the historical context in which Sternfeld was working and the pivotal role that American Prospects has played in the course of contemporary filmmaking and art photography. In American Prospects, a fireman shops for a pumpkin while a house burns in the background; a group of motorcyclists stop at the side of the road to take in a stunning, placid view of Bear Lake, Utah; the high-tech world headquarters of the Manville Corporation sits in picturesque Colorado, obscured by a defiant boulder; a lone basketball net stands in the desert near Lake Powell in Arizona; and a cookie-cutter suburban housing settlement rests squarely amongst rolling hills in Pendleton, Oregon. Sternfeld's photographic tour of America is a search for the truth of a country not just as it exists in a particular era but as it is in its ever-evolving essence. It is a sad poem, but also a funny and generous one, recognizing endurance, poignant beauty, and determination within its sometimes tense, often ironic juxtapositions of man and nature, technology and ruin.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Searching for the pulse of our country, Joel Sternfeld’s photos echo our American prospects. -- Vanity Fair

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: .A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. (February 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024779
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024771
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 15.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important photographic works of the 20th century, October 8, 2007

By 

Dalton (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: AMERICAN PROSPECTS (Hardcover)

The title of this review suggests that I am exaggerating, but I promise that I am not. This book of photography blew me away the first time I opened it. How had I gone for so long without hearing of Joel Sternfeld?

This book is full of large, beautifully printed color photographs of a quality I couldn't have expected. Each image is beautifully thought out and perfectly executed. The photographs are sometimes humorous, sometimes somber, and always carry a visual impact. Stephen Shore is an obvious point of reference; both photographers were working with similar materials right around the same time, both traveling the country capturing their view of America. I find Sternfeld's photographs to be placed on a somewhat grander scale, while Shore's photos suggest a more offhand manner. Both have a permanent place on my bookshelf.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, I suggest that anyone interested in serious photography buy it right away.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a landmark poetic document recorded and built by a master, July 15, 2006

By 

jack kerr (northport, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects (Hardcover)

if you want to know where the comtemporary obsession with large format color "street" work came from, this is it. newer books, by artists like alec soth and other color documentary artists, are excellent, important books, but it must at least be noted that the true groundbreakers were working a generation ago, putting out these kinds of books before it was the accepted trend. and simply put, this work along with shore's 'uncommon places' and eggleston's 'guide', are still, in my opinion, unsurpassed.

on top of that, the size and reproduction quality of this book are mind-blowing. i can't imagine any photography fan not loving this book, or any serious student not wanting it (for a decent price, of course, which this actually is with the discount.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over-rated, why the fuss?, July 2, 2011

By 

nerose "nerose" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects (Hardcover)

I have known this work since the first edition book came out. This is a modern (2003) reprinted version with a few tweaks and added images.

The book and work is good, certainly Sternfeld's best by a long way. Some of the pictures are a little too 'interesting', with too much apparent ambulance-chasing in them for my taste. Rogue Elephant on the road/ Landslips/ Fires at the Pumpkin Farm, etc are all very entertaining, but seem too intent on finding obvious reasons to make a photograph. Obvious is not good. Much great photography has taught us that. Other quieter pictures get drowned by their noisy siblings, when they are often better and more telling moments.

For all those who put Sternfeld up there with Eggleston and Shore, it has to be clarified that the (original edition) book did not come out till 1987. The book is good, don't get me wrong, but claims he was one of the founding fathers of 'New Color' movement are beyond me - if the book was not out till the late 1980's it can't have had an ounce of the national/ international influence that Eggleston or Shore had, with their far earlier publications. Even European photographers had various color books out by then, so it would be hard to argue any paradigm shift through this work by its publication in 1987.