Stephen Shore’s, Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, contains photographs taken all over North America, even parts of Canada, that span over a decade – 70’s to the early 80’s. Some of the photographs that are displayed within the works have never been shown before and only the eyes of the photographer have. This journey was meant for exploring and to show how the culture of America changes. Also, he demonstrated how the photograph rendered the segments between time and space.
Shore was one of the first photographers to use color and make it work. He grew up primarily using black and white and then started focusing on color. This allowed him to show more detail and with that, he entered into a new developing stage where most photographers at this time did not enter.
Shore was deeply influenced by Andy Warhol. He spent time in the factory for two years – 1965 to 1967. While he was there he learned that Warhol was intentionally vocal and open about asking questions to people to help him with decision making. It was the energy of the people who helped Warhol work. The artist worked in a serial manner with projects, this led Shore to think the same way. From my own observances, he felt as if it was almost necessary to attain this manner.
After American Surfaces, Shore began to use a larger format camera, an 8 x 10. He stopped using a 35 mm camera because the only clear picture he could get was from a 4 x 5 print. When he tried to blow up the picture to a larger scale the picture would become grainier. That’s when he decided to use an 8 x 10. Shore realized then that he could still allow the subject to be small if need be and for that, it allowed him to move further back. By doing this, he was able photograph scene that contained more information.
Using this larger format camera led to the beginning of his journey to document North America for Uncommon Places. In this he was able to capture more desirable areas for viewing. Everything that is documented includes a man-made environment. The scenes are captured in a way where everything is immobile: every landscape, every person. Even if the subject is moving, the photograph makes it seem as though the image is a still life, which in some cases it is. The way Shore documents his subject matter is completely banal, but to the point where the boring becomes the interesting.
One of my favorite photograph’s that was published within this book is Shore’s U.S. 97. This photograph was taken south of Klamath Falls in Oregon on July 21, 1973. There is a billboard placed off the side of U.S. 97 that has a painting of a snow-capped mountain and blue skies. The actual sky that is depicted in the photograph has many shades of blue and contains many clouds, thus being ten times more beautiful than any painting can be.
Information taken from Umcommon Places: The Complete Works
