The Nature of Photographs [Hardcover]

Stephen Shore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

This book grew out of a college course that Stephen Shore taught for many years. Its aim is not to explore photographic content - the subject of an image - but to describe the physical and formal attributes of a photographic print, the very elements that form the tools a photographer uses to define and interpret that content. By teaching us how to look at photographs and helping us to see the world the way the photographer may have seen it, Shore also teaches us a way of looking at the world around us. "The Nature of Photographs" is a primary tool for critical analysis and the understanding of photography in general. As one of the photographers who established colour photography as a legitimate medium of artistic expression in the early 1970s and an influential and important teacher of both the theory and practice of photography, Stephen Shore is the ideal guide to the subject of 'how' to look at photographs. By putting himself in the shoes of the photographers, he imagines the concerns or approach to the subject or concept they may have had when they were taking the picture. As well as a selection of Shore's own work, "The Nature of Photographs" contains images from all eras of photography, from classic images by Walker Evans, Brassai and Eugene Atget to more contemporary work by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Cindy Sherman, Joel Sternfeld, Thomas Struth, Richard Prince and Andreas Gursky. It includes all genres, such as street photography, fine art photography and documentary photography, as well as images by unknown photographers, be they in the form of a snapshot from the early days of photography or an aerial photograph taken as part of a geographical survey. Shore has selected images by, among others, Eugene Atget, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston and Robert Adams, and offers an explanation as to how they 'work'. Together with his clear, intelligent and accessible text, Shore uses these works to demonstrate how the world in front of the camera is transformed into a photograph.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is obvious from the book's very precision, its compact yet evocative statements, that Shore has spent years thinking through what he discusses in the book... In my roughly twenty years of writing about photography, I don't think I've come across a book that has implied so much with so few words, a book that raises so many important questions with so little fanfare and with such precision. Shore's humility is always evident, as is his fascination with things photographic, as are his credentials as a photographer. Given all this, it makes sense to listen carefully to what he has to say in The Nature of Photographs." -- James Kaufmann, Photographer's Forum

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

""Shore's text is written so clearly and the ideas presented so aptly through the photographs of the major photographers he has selected for reproduction that students, artists, and arts advocates will benefit from it as both an artist's book and as a primary tool for critical analysis and understanding of photography in general." -- James L. Enyeart, College of Santa Fe and former director, George Eastman House

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; Second edition (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071484585X
• ISBN-13: 978-0714845852
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #670,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine selection of photographs; rather esoteric discussion, July 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Nature of Photographs (Paperback)

This is a beautifully designed book. The selection of photographs thoughtfully illustrates the way photography works. I enjoyed most especially the author's own "Luzzara Italy, 1993."

The essay, though, is not always clear enough to support the author's ideas. One who is new to photography may have trouble understanding some of Mr Shore's concepts. For example, in the chapter "The Mental Level," he writes "If you right now become aware of the space between yourself and this page, there is a transmutation of your attention and perception. This sort of perceptual change...would for a photographer, lead to a realignment of his or her formal decisions in making a photograph.(p 65)" To put it plainly, if you think carefully about what you are seeing, you would likely discover something new about it. Such an insight would lead you to change the way you photograph it.

Nevertheless, I like the book. I recommend it to you.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Wisdom, August 14, 2007

By 

Andrew Ilachinski (Springfield, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nature of Photographs (Hardcover)

Stephen Shore, the well known photographer (and teacher; who, among other things, was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY) has recently updated his classic meditation on the Nature of Photographs. Recommended to all aspiring (and working) photographers, the beauty of this book is the density of its distilled wisdom.

You will not find anything here on f-stops, film speeds and lenses, nothing on the darkroom (analog or digital), nothing on the raging "debate" whether to pick up an 8 megapixel DSLR or a 10, and no instructions - at least explicit ones - on how to take "better" pictures. What you will find is the crystalline essence of Shore's lifetime's worth of thinking about the nature of the photograph. His short, Zen-like prose-poem musings pierce the proverbial bullseye like an archer's arrow; and leave the reader both enchanted and haunted by their eloquence and wisdom.

Shore reminds us that amidst the infinity of potential images, both real and imagined, the photographer has four - and only four - formal tools for defining a picture's content and organization: vantage point, frame, focus and time. Stop and think about that for a moment. With all the wonderful technology underneath our thumb as we prepare to press the shutter, with all the different ways in which we can image ourselves "taking" a shot, and all the different images that can conceivably exist, the photographer really only has these four fundamental "creative dimensions" with which to work, and no more! Where do I position myself; what do I put in the picture and what do I leave out; where should I focus my attention; and how much of a slice of time do I want to include?

Every picture that has ever been taken, and every photograph yet to be captured - from Adams' shots of Yosemite, to Cartier-Bresson's visual etudes on the "Decisive Moment," to visual realities created by some future technologies - is "reality" as aesthetically transformed by the four-dimensional human creative filter!

Yet somehow, miraculously even, this suffices to provide (however brief) glimpses of an infinite dimensional world of meaning and beauty. That is the magic of photography!

For those of you who have the first edition of this book...I have both versions of this book. The new book roughly doubles the number of accompanying images (including color photos) and adds quite a bit of commentary. It is written (thankfully!) in essentially the same style, which I find almost meditative in its quality and depth of vision. If you have enjoyed the first edition, you will likely treasure this one.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple Succinct and Clarifying, December 5, 2001

By 

Stuart Murdoch "everything in photography is ... (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nature of Photographs (Paperback)

I stumbled on Mr. Shore's wonderful book whilst browsing for other photography books. This book while not breaking any new ground in Photography theory gives permission for the reader to reclaim and rexamine what a traditonal analog photograph can be. Admittedly it does not cover contemporary digital issues, it makes no claims to be this anyway, being more democratic in it's intention.

This book has allowed me to clarify in a succinct and simple manner a variety of issues that I have known intuitively since becoming serious about my image making, and now feel better equipped to share with my students.

This kind of writing is refreshing and uplifiting, something I feel is desirable in this hectic post modern world.