Stephen Shore: Survey

by Stephen Shore, Sandra Phillips (Text), Marta Daho (Text)

Stephen Shore has had a significant influence on multiple generations of artists and photographers. Even for the youngest photographers working today, his work remains an ongoing and indisputable reference point. Stephen Shore: Survey includes over 250 images that span Shore's impressive and productive career. The images range from 1969 to 2013, with series such as Early Works, Amarillo, New York City, American Surfaces and Uncommon Places, among others. Stephen Shore: Survey elucidates Shore's contributions, as well as the historiographical interpretations of his work that have influenced photographic culture over the past four decades. The narrative of the catalogue is conceptualized around three particularly revealing aspects of Shore's work, including his analysis of photographic and visual language, his topographical approach to the contemporary landscape and his significant use of color within a photographic context. The images are accompanied by an interview between David Campany and Shore, as well as texts by Sandra S. Phillips, Marta Daho and Horacio Fernandez. Published for his first ever retrospective exhibition, this essential catalogue also features a complete bibliography and chronology.
B>Stephen Shore (born 1947) had his work purchased by Edward Steichen for The Museum of Modern Art, New York, at age 14. At 17, Shore was a regular at Andy Warhol's Factory, producing an important photographic document of the scene, and in 1971, at the age of 24, he became the first living photographer since Alfred Stieglitz to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has had numerous one-man shows, including those at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1982, he has been director of the photography program at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts.

Genres: Photography, Art

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2014

About the author

Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited for the past forty-five years. He was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, forty years earlier. He has also had one-man shows at George Eastman House, Rochester; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art opened a major retrospective spanning Stephen Shore's entire career. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His series of exhibitions at Light Gallery in New York in the early 1970s sparked new interest in color photography and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.

More than 25 books have been published of Stephen Shore's photographs including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works; American Surfaces; Stephen Shore, a retrospective monograph in Phaidon's Contemporary Artists series; Stephen Shore: Survey and most recently, Transparencies: Small Camera Works 1971-1979 and Stephen Shore: Elements. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art published Stephen Shore in conjunction with their retrospective of his photographic career. Stephen also wrote The Nature of Photographs, published by Phaidon Press, which addresses how a photograph functions visually. His work is represented by 303 Gallery, New York; and Sprüth Magers, London and Berlin. Since 1982 he has been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts.

Reviews

[Mike Kleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to look at photo books as a dollar to no. of images ratio type deal. I know I shouldn't. But I do. I do not own any Stephen Shore books so I thought this might be the best way to jump in. It's a retrospective. A survey if you will. The price is about the same as Uncommon Places: The Complete Works and not only provides images from the titular work, but also, all of his work (it is a retrospective after all; all-encompassing I would hope). What I want to say is this: I was not disappointed.

I paid good money for this book and I can now see why. And I am not talking about my enjoyment of the images. I am talking pure dollar to no. of images ratio here. There are pictures. A ton of pictures. The book is big. It is heavy. It's so large, the lamp I was trying to read the book with/look at the images, kept getting kissed by the edges of the pages as I was turning them. And also, to be frank. I felt a bit overwhelmed. I got to a point where I thought, when is this ending? But also, this made me realize perhaps I was mentally restless and not ready for a sit down with a picture book today. What gives though? I waited all morning and afternoon to do my other stuff so I could devote some time to this. Doesn't matter I guess.

You can tell that Stephen Shore is Stephen Shore for a reason. And it's nice to sort of see the growth that occurs. And understand where the artist comes from. And there are essays aplenty. Just; I'm going to have to come back. Revisit the review. When I am able to calm down a bit more and allow this book to sink in. Still, 4 out of 5 ain't too shabby, eh?

NB: Kind of interesting to realize that what I found most interesting about this text was Shore's fascination and use of the iPhoto program in the early 2000s to create a number of limited-run (usually 20) photo books. I would classify these as more personal. And then also, more fascinating to me--that Shore chose to show a sampling of those images in this text. And then the cherry on top, came after, when I found out that there is a book of all these images (taken between 2003 -2008, so 83 limited run books in all) titled, and quite aptly I might add, The Book of Books: Stephen Shore.

Overall, the experience was a solid 4. Glad I came into possession of this book. Minor quip: a handful of images seemed to be low-res. And not in the sense that they are native low-res images. No. Rather, the low-res images felt to me like images of a certain dimension/mega-pixel that were blown up to dimensions beyond those limited native px dimensions. If this is the case, it is a shame. If it is because the images themselves are just not high quality, then it is fine. Either way, a mention of this somewhere in the text would have been appreciated.

[dv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good anthology (large format, decent quality of reproductions) of Shore's work up until today. The interview by David Campany, arguably the best one made with Shore, is worth the price of the book.

[Brendan Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite photographers.