Thesis & Background

The body of work I chose to examine was Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces, with the intention of exploring the “rawness” of his pictures. Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces was described as somewhat radical in the photography work as the time as he chose to stray away from sharp composition and black and white photography. Another interesting aspect of his work was it contained subjects like dirty sheets and toilets. Stephen Shore said that this work was him just trying to take of snapshot of his field of vision and leave the picture and the subjects as is and capture the true nature of where he was. This aspect of shores photography is what made his American Surfaces picture book so iconic as it transformed the definition of modernistic photography and marking him as one of the photographers who turned color photography into an art form. This new way of photographing reminds me of how pictures are taken nowadays in social media. That’s why I choose Stephen Shore, the “raw” nature of all the pictures is the theme that really stood out compared to all the other books, and the choices to photograph subjects that are not technically visually appealing such as the dirty toilets are half eaten plates of food that are found throughout the whole book.

Methodology

In an interview in 2004, Stephen Shore spoke about his work saying that his method of photography was “simply recording my life”. He took pictures of the ordinary, pictuyres of houses, toilets, lamps, plates of food. His pictures seem almost basic to an extent, especially given the way social media has trained this generation to see photography as capturing just normal life. One could argue that the book lacks a clear subject other than the common themes such as plates of half-eaten food and buildings. One of the aspects that further pushes that idea is his use of a small 35mm camera. This allowed him to not be an intimidating photographer, especially when capturing people. He did not need to tell people to pose, nor did people  pose when he did photograph them. He also mentions in an interview with Guide to unique Photography Magazine, one of his techniques was “looking” and asking questions such as “what is looking like?” and “what is seeing like?”, and his work represents that. When looking at pictures such as the one above the street, it’s a still image capturing exactly what you would see, with no clear subjects. Furthermore, his images have an aspect of stillness towards them. Picturing mostly still objects, the photobook has theme of stillness which furthers his point of view of just capturing what has looking at.

            In trying to capture images like Stephen Shore, I will aim to capture and ask the same questions he asked before taking pictures. Trying to minis the subject of the image, and leave the image as a still moment, almost of a screenshot of what my eyes are seeing at that point in time. The rawness aspect of his images comes from that lack of editing to his images. Looking to leave the picture untouched to capture the realness of the moment. One aspect that is also seen in his images in American Surfaces is indoor pictures seem to be taken in a darker room with some type of light emphasizing the item in the light, like a tray of food on the stovetop or the dog on the ground. Additionally, his pictures outside typically seem to be mid afternoon, indicated by the slight orange hue seen in some images. I expect to get a plainness and the “rawness” mentioned above in the image by mimicking and approaching his photography.

            His photography captures my eye due to the plainness, which is so similar to how many of my generation capture images. Whether it be a interesting looking tree, a road, a garden etc. He captures normal life, which is something I hadn’t seen with many of the photographers we have studied so far. Which I feel is what his work so Iconic. The pleasant, simple, minimalistic photography is so ahead of the social media age. It will be interesting to explore how to capture the plainness without creating a sense of boredom with the images.

Photo Analysis

When I first began taking pictures, I found it to be slightly difficult. The methodology of taking these seemingly boring and bland pictures was difficult just since capturing ordinary things and reminding myself to take a picture of a dirty plate was unusual. Also due to the nature of sometimes trying to picture normality, placing an effort to capture boringness would lead to having pictures that in my opinion wouldn’t reflect his work. As I continued the process, the methodology became more comfortable, and taking pictures became more natural. Which is something that I imagine happened to Stephen Shore as well. Photography as we have seen in the class typically gets attributed with some aspect of social commentary or some aspect of portraying things people want to see. One does not see a dirty bathroom and thinks to picture it, and even more as a professional photographer. One thing I noticed after taking photographs as the time went on, how the comfortability developed is how the pictures started to become more natural and reflecting the aspect of just capturing what was Infront. Becoming comfortable with asymmetry, slight tilt, and other imperfections. And becoming more comfortable with understanding what to capture. One thing I discovered as I took pictures and how many of his didn’t not have a set angle. The pictures were not necessarily always straight, slightly tilted, there is an aspect of randomness, which I encountered when I began to think about how I was going to photograph. I believe this aspect of nonuniformity further pushed Stephen Shores idea of capturing what has seeing as sight/vision is not a robotic straight view always. What someone see changes with the distance, size, and placement of the subject. Which is one of the aspects that became difficult to capture. In its own way the conscious effort to be natural ends with unnatural pictures. One thing that I found to not work well was the mental note to photograph. Many times, I would find myself saying “should’ve taken a picture there” which I feel comes with capturing photographs like Stephen Shore, the unstructured nature and lack of very clearly defined subjects made it sometimes difficult to remember to take a photograph. One aspect that was also challenging waws deciding what to picture. Certain things like a dirty toilet, eaten plates, and human subjects I found to be quite easy and approachable in terms of knowing when to photograph. But mimicking and/or trying to replicate the pictures of streets became more challenging as I felt there wasn’t a clearly defined process in the selection. One of the liberating aspects of the process was that many of the pictures I attempted to take came from just walking and exploring. Street photograph’s and signs were hard to come by if I did not make an effort to explore, which is an aspect inherit with photography but much more when trying to capture some sense of boredom or that mundane in American Surfaces.

One picture in particular that I thought reflected the themes of American Surfaces in successful was the image below of smoke from the subway in New York. Even though on one hand I took the picture because I simply thought it was cool, on the other hand it demonstrates the idea of making ordinary things such as what is depicted in the image, snapshotting and making it something I enjoy. This aspect I found quite difficult to do in other images/subjects like a dirty bathroom or a house. This theme of making the ordinary or a snapshot of reality into something the average person can enjoy and flip through is one of the aspects that I love about American Surfaces. Another image I particularly enjoyed to was the spilled beans on the floor. That came about after I started a prank way with my roommates and they decided to pour a can of beans in the dead center of my room. One of the reasons why I particularly like this image when compared to Stephen Shore work, was that it reflected some of grossness that Stephen Shore captures, and his choice to capture subjects that were not usually photographed.

When looking back to the gallery of images I do think I missed not taking pictures at things such as signs, which is something the Stephen Shore depicts though out American Surfaces. Another thing that I lacked in my photographs was that Stephen Shore depicted suburban, middle class America which is what he grew up in. Even though it was mostly out of my control due to being in New York City and Miami when I took most of my images, that theme throughout his photographs were missing in mine. 

 

Conclusion

After going around and taking photographs, I realized that the influence that American Surfaces has is the idea of looking at the world differently and appreciating even the plainness of sights. I think many times people think to only capture things “worth” being photographed but to understand that we especially as Americans should appreciate the things Infront of us. His pictures have some of most normal subjects like a plate of steak, but hes able to create these photographs that when I first picked up the book I could not stop flipping through. I was able to use a 35mm camera that my friend allowed me to borrow and use some film but other than that using and being in the 21^st century, I think influenced my ability of what I could capture. When using the 35mm camera I found myself slightly more selective of what I wanted to photograph but using my digital phone camera just allowed me to snap a picture whenever I felt it. I think experiencing the flexibility of having the digital camera and then using a 35mm camera showed me how conscious Stephen Shore must have been of what he was photographing, knowing he could just not waste a picture. That aspect of 20^th century photography, in my opinion gives each image slightly more value then a lot of the photographs as a 21 century teenager I see on social media like Instagram.

Sources

Stephen Shore: Taking photographs that “feel like seeing”YouTube · San Francisco Museum of Modern Art5 minutes, 18 secondsApr 22, 2019

http://stephenshore.net/bio.php?menu=info

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3769

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/stephen-shore?all/all/all/all/0

Slide Show and Gallery

Other Images of American Surfaces