If you are going to call your photography collections things like American Surfaces, you had better be good, but Stephen Shore has more than enough chops to pull it off. In fact he’s one of the most influential colour photographers around, and his work is currently the subject of a major review at Sprüth Magers London.
In American Surfaces, Shore set off on a road trip around America in the early 1970s, obsessively documenting the mundane and anonymous in diaristic snapshots which only achieve significance when viewed in the context of the whole. Cue classic Americana. Uncommon Places is also seen as a pioneering series, this time concentrating on landscapes. Taking its name from John Cage’s Lecture on Something and Lecture on Nothing, this retrospective curated by Todd Levin features 65 photographs (including the début of his 2012 series Ukraine) from throughout Shore’s four-decade career, which has been dedicated to finding the beauty in the everyday. Drenched in melancholy and wanderlust, Something + Nothing ends on 11 January.
Stephen Shore
Amarillo, Texas, August, 1973
Vintage Chromogenic colour print 8,9 x 12,7 cm
31/2×5 inches
21 x 24.8 cm (framed)
8 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (framed)
Stephen Shore
Abu Dhabi, 2009
Chromogenic colour print
50.8 x 61 cm
20 x 24 inches
60.2 x 69.1 cm (framed)
23 3/4 x 27 1/8 inches (framed)
Stephen Shore
Palm Beach, Florida, April – May, 1973
Vintage Chromogenic colour print
8.9 x 12.7 cm
3,5 x 5 inches
21 x 24.8 cm (framed)
8 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (framed)
Stephen Shore
U.S. 89, Arizona, June, 1972
Vintage Chromogenic colour print
8.9 x 12.7 cm
31/2×5 inches
21 x 24.8 cm (framed)
8 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches (framed)
Stephen Shore
Abu Dhabi, 2009
Chromogenic colour print
50.8 x 61 cm
20 x 24 inches
60.2 x 69.1 cm (framed)
23 3/4 x 27 1/8 inches (framed)
Edition 2 of 8
All images © Courtesy the artist
and Sprüth Magers Berlin London
Installation views, Stephen White
