192 - Stephen Shore
© Stephen Shore
Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited for the past forty-five years. He was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, forty years earlier. He has also had one-man shows at George Eastman House, Rochester; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art opened a major retrospective spanning Stephen Shore's entire career. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His series of exhibitions at Light Gallery in New York in the early 1970s sparked new interest in color photography and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.
More than 25 books have been published of Stephen Shore's photographs including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works; American Surfaces; Stephen Shore, a retrospective monograph in Phaidon's Contemporary Artists series; Stephen Shore: Survey and most recently, Transparencies: Small Camera Works 1971-1979 and Stephen Shore: Elements. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art published Stephen Shore in conjunction with their retrospective of his photographic career.
Stephen also wrote The Nature of Photographs, published by Phaidon Press, which addresses how a photograph functions visually. His work is represented by 303 Gallery, New York; and Sprüth Magers, London and Berlin. Since 1982 he has been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College, NY, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts.
His new book, Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography. A Memoir, was published by Mack Books in 2021.
On episode 192, Stephen discusses, among other things:
How the new book came about
How it differs from previous book, The Nature of Photographs.
Artist’s superstition over discussing the creative process
The importance of experimentation
Showing and not explaining
Photography as a ‘generous medium’
Creating the book as an ‘experience’
Structure vs. composition
Inclusion vs. exclusion
Mastering the discipline - 3 phases
Does he believe in The Muse?
Being attentive in the midst of life
Working with a performance coach
The influence of paintings… and Walker Evans
The nature (and importance) of ambition
Getting a solo show at The Met, aged 23
Sustaining drive
His interest in drone photography… and Instagram
The day he realised the 8x10 camera was for him
Referenced:
“To look at something completely ordinary, what you see day to day in your life, and pay attention to it, that’s what interests me. And just from years of trying it and doing it, I feel like it provides a certain kind of food for people, that it’s nourishing.”
THIS EPISODE OF THE PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY ENELOOP RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES
This episode of the podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - the latest and greatest photobooks, expertly curated and delivered to you door with free shipping and no hassles. Last chance to apply now to the Chico Hotsprings Portfolio Review & Publishing prize.
INFORM THE MIND, INSPIRE THE SOUL
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