Customer Reviews

Stephen Shore: American Surfaces (Photography)

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After crossing the country in 1972/73 and photographing (or would snapping be more appropriate!) surfaces everywhere Shore returned to New York with hundreds of rolls of film and to continue the theme had them processed at Kodak labs into the stock 3 by 5.5 inch format color prints just like any other tourist.

The subsequent Light Gallery exhibition of the prints didn't go down too well it seems. Hardly surprising as the idea of wall mounting dozens of postcard size images of everyday houses, streets, commercial signs, motel bedrooms and their bric-a-brac (don't forget the toilets) and folks he met on the way all presented in a matter-of-fact style would hardly be considered fine art. But look through the book several times and 312 images start to come alive. Each one being the same size helps I think though there is an element of pacing in the way the book is laid out with sometimes four to a spread, others just have two or three. The flow is also dictated by placing them in historical sequence.

This book has the largest number of Shore's photos from his Seventies field trips and it really needs to be considered with his Uncommon Places: The Complete Works because American Surfaces tends to merge into it. I think Uncommon has some the greatest color work taken in the last few decades and if you look through both books it becomes clear, to me, that Shore is one of the leading American photographers.

Incidentally, Phaidon have published a sort of diary of Shore's travels: A Road Trip Journal complete with all the printed ephemera that one would accumulate from a journey across the Nation.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

I loved this book, partly because I love this photographer's eye. Are the pictures documentary? Sure. Are they wry? Often, though not always. They are beautiful in the most strange, farfetched, formal aesthetic sense (shapes, colors, imaginary visual lines). That about sums it up. Stephan Shore's pictures exist on many levels simultaneously---one reason they are worth owning in book form, able to be revisited many times over a long time. Shore has a genuine gift, and he shares it with whomever takes the time to really look. This older work is relevant to contemporary production worldwide (i.e., Thomas Struth). Hopefully you will enjoy this book as much as I do.

It's hard to tell how vital this visual diary is in the grand scheme of photography. It's a very personal travelogue. Shore is obsessed with himself and where he goes and what he sees. As a summary of early seventies pop culture it is fantastic. You can find out what people looked like and more importantly, what everything else looked like. I appreciate this aspect of the book, it's a reference guide to 1972. I think some of the photography is top notch but think that the book would be stronger edited down a bit. It's more interesting than the original but packs less of a punch. Could you live without it? Of course. Do you want to? No.