Stephen Shore

Always moving forward, never locking into a single style, and seeing each image as a problem to solve: this approach has characterized Stephen Shore’s work for the past 50 years, regardless of his techniques, processes, or subjects. “Whenever I find myself copying myself—making pictures whose problems I’ve already solved—I give myself new issues to pursue,” he has said. 1 His work encompasses black-and-white snapshots in the 1960s, color and large-format camera photographs from the 1970s to the 1990s, print-on-demand books in the early 2000s, and, beginning in 2014, Instagram posts. His shifts between color and black and white, his use of both analog and digital technologies, and his constant variation of scale and subject have produced a visually disparate body of work in which the prevailing rule seems to be the absence of rules.
But the apparently unfathomable quality of Shore’s photographs should not obscure the fact that his work is founded on ideas that he uses to resolve the “problem” presented by each image. The first of these is his search for maximum clarity. This has been evident since the 1970s, when he began using an 8-by-10-inch large-format camera, and is now furthered by the technical advancements of digital cameras, which allow for extreme precision but are much easier to handle than traditional view cameras. Another guiding principle in the majority of Shore’s photographs is a respect for natural light. His work does not include images taken at night, and, except in his early work, he very rarely uses artificial light or a flash. But perhaps the most consistent of his methods is the discipline he exercises in taking as few shots as possible, a habit that owes a great deal to his earlier use of large, cumbersome view cameras that require expensive negative processing. He takes one shot of a given subject, and does very little editing of the image afterward.
Shore’s approach to photography is both deadpan and contemplative, and marked by a willful economy of means. He likens the process of shooting photographs to one of his favorite activities: fishing. “I’ve found through experience that whenever—or so it seems—my attention wanders or I look away then surely a fish will rise to the fly and I will be too late setting the hook. I watch the fly calmly and attentively so that when the fish strikes—I strike. Then the line tightens, the playing of the fish begins, and time stands still. Fishing, like photography, is an art that calls forth intelligence, concentration, and delicacy.” 2
Byline: Introduction by Quentin Bajac, The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography, 2017
- Introduction
- Stephen Shore (born October 8, 1947) is an American photographer known for his images of banal scenes and objects in the United States, and for his pioneering use of color in art photography. His books include Uncommon Places (1982) and American Surfaces (1999), photographs that he took on cross-country road trips in the 1970s.In 1975 Shore received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1971, he was the first living photographer to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where he had a solo show of black and white photographs. In 1976 he had a solo exhibition of color photographs at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2010 he received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.
- Wikidata
- Q586141
- Introduction
- Born 8 October 1947. Shore began his first photographic experiments in 1953 and took his first colour photographs in 1956. In 1970 Shore participated in a workshop given by Minor White. At this point he began to work in large-format colour photography. He concentrated on photographing landscape, streets and buildings. From 1977 to 1982 Shore was commissioned by the Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York, to photograph Monet's gardens at Giverny, France. American photographer.
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Photographer
- Names
- Stephen Shore, Stephen Eric Shore
- Ulan
- 500040819
Exhibitions
-
Stephen Shore
Nov 19, 2017–May 28, 2018
MoMA
-
XL: 19 New Acquisitions in Photography
May 10, 2013–Jan 6, 2014
MoMA
-
The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook
Apr 16, 2012–Apr 21, 2013
MoMA
-
Photography Rotation 8
May 13, 2011–Mar 12, 2012
MoMA
-
Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West
Mar 29–Jun 8, 2009
MoMA
-
Stephen Shore has
24 exhibitionsonline.
-
Stephen Shore Edie Sedgwick from the series The Velvet Years: Warhol's Factory 1965–1967
-
Stephen Shore Lou Reed and Andy Warhol, the Factory, New York, New York 1966–1967
-
Stephen Shore 4-Part Variation 1969
-
Stephen Shore Circle No. 1, July 1969 1969
-
Stephen Shore American National Bank Building, 7th & Tyler 1971
-
Stephen Shore Capitol Hotel, 401 S. Pierce 1971
-
Stephen Shore Civic Center, 3rd & Buchanan 1971
-
Stephen Shore Double Dip, 1323 S. Polk 1971
-
Stephen Shore Doug's Bar B Q No.1, 3313 S. Georgia 1971
-
Stephen Shore Feferman's Army Navy Store, 201 E. 4th 1971
-
Stephen Shore Fenley's Cafe, 322 W. 3rd 1971
-
Stephen Shore Polk Street 1971
-
Stephen Shore Potter County Courthouse, Betw. 5th & 6th on Taylor 1971
-
Stephen Shore St. Anthony's Hospital, 735 N. Polk 1971
-
Stephen Shore Clovis, New Mexico, June 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Clovis, New Mexico, June 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Holbrook, Arizona, June 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Meridian, Mississippi, June 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Santa Fe, New Mexico, June 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Chicago, Illinois, July 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Clinton, Oklahoma, July 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Normal, Illinois, July 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Pontiac, Michigan, July 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore New York, New York, August 1972 1972
-
Stephen Shore Breakfast, Trail's End Restaurant, Kanab, Utah, August 10, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore 2nd Street, Ashland, Wisconsin, July 9, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore Memphis, Tennessee, December 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore Horseshoe Bend Motel, Lovell, Wyoming, July 16, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, July 17, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore Room 125, Westbank Motel, Idaho Falls, Idaho, July 18, 1973 1973
-
Stephen Shore Castine, Maine, July 18, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Hob Nob Restaurant, Florida, Massachusetts, July 15, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Room 131, Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, June 21, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Holden Street, North Adams, Massachusetts, July 13, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Michael and Sandy Marsh, Amarillo, Texas, September 27, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore U.S. 10, Post Falls, Idaho, August 25, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Washington Ave, North Adams, Massachusetts, July 14, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Lincoln Street and Riverside Street, Spokane, Washington, August 25, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore 2nd Street East and South Main Street, Kalispell, Montana, August 22, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Broad Street, Regina, Saskatchewan, August 17, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Church and 2nd Streets, Easton, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Deerfield Street, Greenfield, Massachusetts, July 15, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Foothill Road, Beverly Hills, California, September 10, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Pittsfield, Massachusetts, July 13, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore West 4th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 5, 1974 1974
-
Stephen Shore Lookout Hotel, Ogunquit, Maine, July 16, 1974 1974
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
All requests to license audio or video footage produced by MoMA should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills or motion picture footage from films in MoMA’s Film Collection cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For licensing motion picture film footage it is advised to apply directly to the copyright holders. For access to motion picture film stills please contact the Film Study Center. More information is also available about the film collection and the Circulating Film and Video Library.
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication or moma.org, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].