{"id":6935,"date":"2022-10-25T20:11:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T20:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/liberatinglens\/?page_id=6935"},"modified":"2022-12-12T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:26:07","slug":"lindy-benjamin-alexander","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/liberatinglens\/lindy-benjamin-alexander\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindy, Benjamin Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces<\/em>: The Beauty in the Ordinary and Mundane of America’s Most Overlooked Places<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


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Thesis & Background<\/h2>\n
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Thesis and Background Page<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I chose Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces<\/em> to explore themes of the beauty of the ordinary and mundane as well the the universality of American life. Shore was born in New York City in 1947 and was deemed to be a prodigy in photography. Shore studied under Edward Steichen and Andy Warhol which greatly influenced his artistic choices<\/a>. He had a camera in his hands from the time he was 6. Shore hosted a solo exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the age of 24. He was the first living photographer granted this type of exhibition at the museum.\u00a0 More about Shore’s life can be found here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Surfaces <\/em>is a collection of the people, places, and items that Shore met while primarily exploring the southern and south-western parts of the United States. His work captured the parts of America that garner little attention from the rest of the world<\/a>, earning the nickname of fly-over states. His goal for the expedition was to capture \u201c\u2018[E]verything, everyone\u2019\u201d(8). In an interview with Phaidon<\/a>, Shore recognized the loneliness that his photos capture in the collection. He described them as \u201c [I] did huge road trips, but particularly with American Surfaces it was a diary of my life, but it was about my life focused on the purpose of making the pictures about my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal of Shore was to document America as he saw it through everyday objects, and he unknowingly created art that captured everyday American life. Shore sent his film to be develop in color at Kodak which was quite expensive in the 1970s, so he had to be deliberate about each photo he took. Shore would study everything he wanted to photograph and selected the one angle that best captured the image. More can be read from Shore’s interview with Phaidon here<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Jewish perspective, Shore wandered around the country with no discernible destination on his road trip which was similar to how Exodus Jews wandered the deserts for 40 years in Exodus. Shore’s road trip and the photos that result merged everyday life with the artistic quality that photos bring to a conversation about relevance of popular culture in art. Shore’s work challenged what is an artistic photograph and what is documentary. A case could be argued that Shore and Roman Vishniac shared similar goals of establishing an ethnographic eye. Shore worked toward the American ethnographic eye; whereas, Vishniac worked toward the Jewish eye. Shore captured and preserved the life and culture of areas not traditionally seen by the rest of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Flight to New York City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Clovis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Methodology<\/h2>\n
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Methodology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shore sought to understand American life through the commonalities of things. When going through the photobook, there was a familiarity in everything despite him having never seen it before. Using his 35mm Rollieflex camera, he used point and shoot photos to capture the people, places, and things that he saw on his journey throughout the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sent his film to be developed back in New York to be developed. All the photos that he took were developed by Kodak. He had a limited budget and had to be selective about what pictures that he chose. He would study his subjects and decide on what singular best shot to take. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shore had over 350 negatives by the time his odyssey had ended, and the ones that spoke the most to him became American Surfaces<\/em>. What Shore found on his voyage across America was the beauty in the mundane. <\/p>\n\n\n

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There is nothing special about a toilet or the contents of a barren fridge, but there is something special when the viewer recognizes their own life in the photo. When I saw the barren fridge from London, I looked at my own and saw that mine was no better containing a half eaten sandwich and limes that been sitting there since August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of his photos in American Surfaces<\/em> captured this stillness and tranquility that life seldom has. We never stop to actually look at the storefronts on our street or the plates in front of us. Every day life is special because everyone has experienced a fridge like the one above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My approach to mirroring Shore\u2019s style will be capturing everything I see. I want to capture the aspects of life and the people in it that make life special. I want to capture sunrise on E Liberty Street, and the Beer Depot sign on Packard. I plan on capturing the people who are important to my life who are with me on the journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I planned on capturing storefronts and hotels. I wanted to capture new experiences and places that a stranger would be able to recognize as something they know from their own life like Shore did.\u00a0I think that there is a certain beauty in knowing that no matter where you are there are people just like you. For me, I recognized the man from Pontiac looked exactly like my friend. I had to capture the universality of the expression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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