American Prospects

by Joel Sternfeld (Photographer), Anne Tucker (Contributor), Kerry Brougher (Contributor)

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.

Genres: Photography, Art, Art and Photography, Nonfiction, American

140 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 1987

About the author

Joel Sternfeld is an artist-photographer whose work is concerned with utopic and dystopic possibilities of the American experience.

Ever since the publication of his landmark study American Prospects in 1987, his work has maintained conceptual and political aspects, while also being steeped in history, art history, landscape theory and attention to seasonal passage. It is a melancholic, spectacular, funny and profound portrait of America. The curator Kevin Moore has claimed that the work embodies the “synthetic culmination of so many photographic styles of the 1970s, incorporating the humor and social perspicacity of street photography with the detached restraint of New Topographics photographs and the pronounced formalism of works by so many late-decade colorists” (Kevin Moore, Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980).

On This Site (1996) examines violence in America while simultaneously raising significant epistemological questions about photographs as objects of knowledge.

Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America (2006) “can be seen as a generous respite from the traumatic history in On This Site... It is a survey of American human socialization, alternative ways of living, of hopeful being” (Elin O’Hara Slavik, 2018).

All his subsequent work has sought to expand the narrative possibilities of still photography primarily through an authored text. All of his books and bodies of work converse with each other and may be read as a collective whole.

His work represents a melding of time and place that serves to elucidate, honor, and warn. The images hold a certain urgency, as their histories survive solely through their photographic representation— they are an archive for the future.

Sternfeld is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and spent a year in Italy on a Rome Prize. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, where he holds the Noble Foundation Chair in Art and Cultural History.

Reviews

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second only to Shore's Uncommon Places in my mind. And not inferior really, just different: Sternfeld is more of an "event" photographer than Stephen Shore. Whereas Shore takes a view of nothing -- that is to say, a view invisible to most -- and makes it beautiful and poignant, Sternfeld starts with something -- a house on fire, a mudslide, an escaped elephant -- and forces you to see them in context. This makes their strangeness and beauty all the more striking, since it represents such a sharp break from the way we normally consume these images -- usually in a magazine, or on a website, or on TV -- where the focus is so narrow, the view so tight, we rarely get a chance to fit them into our lives. The tension between the dramatic burning house and the banal pumpkin patch, the collapsed cliff and the suburban ranch home, the exhausted elephant and the country road -- this contrast is Sternfeld's magic, and it's what sets his work apart.

[Lysha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great sampling of one of the best photographers of all time, Joel Sternfeld. This book glances at the United States through Sternfeld's large-format camera. Seeing the U.S. through his eyes has given me a new perspective on photography and the way I look at the world around me. I recommend this book to anyone, not just photographers or travelers. You will find something interesting in each of his photographs. At first glance, you think you've seen what there is to see, but look closer and you will see so many interesting details just waiting to enhance what's already been seen.

[Diego Munoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first glance, some of these photos may seem pointless, and to me, some still do. I imagine this book will continue to reveal itself after more viewings over the years.

I believe the merit in this book is that there is a lot of detail in each photo, each quadrant of a particular photo may have a different story if you look closely. Other photos just juxtapose colors or capture an interesting scene.

[-tin-tin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joel Sternfeld a parcourus les Etats-Unis pendant 8 ans avec une caméra 8 × 10, donc un grand format qui permet d'obtenir une image très précise. Si je fais cette précision ce n'est pas parce que je suis obsédé par la technique (quoique) mais parce que le niveau de détail, la qualité d'image et d'impression (en même temps Steidl) frappent quand on commence à feuilleter le livre. C'est très beau, presque trop beau. Et cela renforce l'impression d'irréel qui traverse l'ouvrage. On assiste à la matérialisation d'une multitude de contes évanescents, dont on ne saisit pas vraiment les enjeux : un stand de vente de citrouilles qui ont étés répandus sur le sol avec un incendie en arrière plan, un éléphant étendu sur une route nationale à l'arrière d'un camion arrêté, ... Mais même des photographies de scènes moins directement surréalistes sont traversées par un sentiment d'étrangeté, comme s'il se tramait quelque chose dans cette banlieue calme au petit matin, entre ce père et son fils posant pour la photo, dans cette piscine à vague bondée, etc. Bref une belle réussite, beaucoup de boulot derrière et ça se ressent.

[Scott Benowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joel Sternfeld uses a very unique style of photography. I'm an amateur photographer myself, I'm familiar with Joel Sternfeld works. Joel Sternfeld explores a number of different themes in his photography.
Most of the photos in "American Prospects" illustrate the irony of how people are seemingly expending a lot of effort to intentionally ignore the beauty in nature scenery which surrounds them.
Joel Sternfeld has been taking photos since the early 1970's, and while this is by no means the only theme which Joel Sternfeld explores in his photography, this is the primary theme of the photos which are included in this book.
If you're interested in landscape photography, photography which is used to illustrate commentary about American culture or art photography, you'll thoroughly enjoy this book.

[dv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pubblicato nel 1987, dialoga con lo Shore di Uncommon Places del 1982: insieme, costituiscono forse i due libri più importanti della fotografia americana "on the road" dopo Evans e prima di Soth. Poi c'è da intendersi su "fotografia on the road", genere che Sternfeld pratica rispetto a Shore con un occhio più arguto e meno clinico e, insieme, più ambiguo e umano, come se fosse un Winogrand che usa il banco ottico (vedi per esempio le immagino che evocano le differenze di classe sociale o l'empatia nei confronti degli animali). Un monumento all'America degli anni '80, un riferimento e una fonte di ispirazione visiva per il discorso successivo sulla rappresentazione del paesaggio americano (e qui torneremmo a Soth, che di Sternfeld è stato allievo).

[Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these images have lived in the back of my mind for twenty-five years or so I was happy to have an ILL copy around for a couple months. A heavy influence on my photobook ‘North Dallas’. This expanded edition was illuminating. In one of the essays, a view camera photograph is compared to experiencing a moment with heightened senses. A nice thought.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw an exhibit of Sternfeld's large-format photographs at the Hall Art Foundation in Reading, VT. Intriguing photographs. This book is a compilation of the project he referred to as "AMERICAN PROSPECTS.". Obtained a copy through ILL.

[Joe Lombardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite photographers and this book doesn’t disappoint. Simply designed with plenty of large images; one on every other page. The quality of photography shown is superb.

[Qubitng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning photographs tinged with a quiet and transient beauty. 67+ photographs in a large format book. I only wish there were more details about each photograph.

[Jinjer]

Exhausted Renegade Elephant photo

[Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six stars actually!
Really love this work. I keep comparing any other photographic work to his and this series in particular. Sternfeld rules, period.

[Chris Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend made a comment after looking at a museum show that I felt got at the heart of the difference between good and bad art: it made him want to make art.

This book makes me want the same. It makes me want to put away my digital camera and buy an 8x10, not because technique is what makes good images, but because it would force me to slow down, back up, and capture every little thing.

Sternfeld's ability to pack so much into a composition, with so many treasures that still all add up to one statement. Incongruity, unpredictability, and subtlety-- what has been lost in screen sized images meant to be consumed for around one second in hopes of getting a like. These images have to be digested, and even though you get the strong sense that nothing has been staged, you see how everything is somehow placed perfectly, where even the color compliments the composition. Quite honestly, this is some of the best photography books I have encountered.

The writing at the beginning at the end do a commendable job of discussing landscape, American life, and photography without grandstanding, and without falling into hyperbolic praise.

Not every image is a hit with me, and that's how it goes. But there are plenty that do, and plenty that hopefully will be influencing my own practice from here on out.

[Elaine Meszaros · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Prospects is a nifty collection of photos from the 70s and 80s by a master photographer. Sternfeld focuses on contrasts of human objects placed existing in nature - a huge rock obstructing the view of a business office, towns dotting empty prairies, a rotting refinery in the desert. Some images are peaceful - nature retaking human creations, other amusing - a woman sunbathing on the beach with a line of battleships behind her, and still others are shocking - a firefighter choosing a pumpkin from a farm stand as the house behind him burns. Beautiful and eerie.

[Zioluc · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'opera più nota di Sternfeld è una pietra miliare della fotografia americana: una delle prime ad aprire la lettura del paesaggio al colore, ma soprattutto lo fa in modo magistrale. E' impossibile non accostare queste foto di grande formato alla pittura, per la composizione di grande respiro ma soprattutto per l'uso del colore. Imperdibile. Il saggio introduttivo è il migliore dei tre contenuti nel libro.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get lost in this volume every time I pull it off the shelf. I literally fall into the photographs, imagining myself on scene at the shoot. Joel Sternfeld does it all; equal parts nostalgia, deliberate spontaneity, and self aware observation, Sternfeld's photographs irrevocably alter the presumed American Dream.

[David Gallin-Parisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Road trip photographs of excellent 1980's America. Confounding, sad, beautiful, and colorful. If you haven't ever seen these photos, or wish you were taking a cross-country road trip through every possible neighborhood of cut and paste wealth, poverty, and previously existing middle class, you need this book. Essential for now!

[Chris Motta · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible color work, images collected over a 7 year period capture an epical view of social mobility, american sprawl and establishment.

[James Moes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting compositions on the optimism/futility of American suburbia & sprawl taken around the time of my birth.

[Marc Friedman]

One of my favorite photographers.

[Jim Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my ten favorite photo books.

[Paul H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

His later work is surprisingly bad (like, really bad) but American Prospects is in my top 20 photobooks of all time; similar to Stephen Shore's best work, but without the deadpan emptiness.