Stephen Shore (1947-) Google Images

A few remarks on his photographs.

Shore became succesful early in life, and became famous mostly for his pictures of (un)common places in the USA. His photographs of small town streets and deserted highways in the American landscape take points of view that are now experienced as standard.

The totality of Shore's work does not stand out as a strong statement, but is very impressive in its visionary introduction of a multitude of themes that were, are and still need to be taken over by more thorough photographers. Examples include the portait of roads, gas stations (reminiscent of Ruscha, Going, ..), of ordinary isolated people on the street (e.g. Lorca di Corsia), of lost figures in vast landscapes (e.g. Gursky), of subcultures (e.g. Arbus, Sherman), etc. For sure, further exhibitions of his work will inspire more photographers, perhaps not to technical perfection and depth, but certainly to originality of vantage point.

(Stephen Shore had a retrospective at the Jeu de Paume, Sully site in Paris in 2005.)

Copyright 2005, by Jan Troost