Stephen Shore - American Surfaces

Stephen Shore - American Surfaces

Stephen Shore was a new and important discovery for me during the trip.

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Resonant passages from the introductory essay by Bob Nickas:

"The pictures in American Surfaces, taken over a twenty-two month period between 1972 and 1973, were not published in book form until 1999. That book, now out of print, comprises 77 plates, none of which is identified by location or date . . . . Here, with 312 plates, identified by city, month, and year, we are able to trace the artist's journey, to vicariously inhabit his everything/everyone mind, from beginning to end."

"The urban and commercial sprawl of the mid-to-late 1970s/early 1980s would threaten to envelop America in a dulling sameness, depriving much of the country of its distinct character and its people of their sense of place. This is, in part, what Shore hoped to, and did, capture."

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Shore's route, from NYC to Maryland. through the Carolinas the the South and then the Southwest, and finally towards Oklahoma City and Chicago, covers much of the same territory as our trip. While Shore's imagery featured much more than just buildings, his simple, frontal compositional style when targeting vernacular buildings resonates with mine. Plus, I'm in love with Kodachrome colour.