Research: Stephen Shore ‘Uncommon Places’

For my next research, I will be looking into Stephen Shore’s photobook ‘Uncommon Places’. Shore was one of the earliest photographers who used colour photography outside of the realms of fashion or advertisement photography. I was drawn to researching this book due to its visual aesthetic, it has a minimalist design with the images filling the page with only a small caption at the bottom.

Shore filled this book with images of things in America which would usually be seen as mundane or banal e.g. petrol stations or regular American streets. This was a peculiar subject choice at the time as photographers would usually set out to capture the exotic and new but Shore created beautiful landscapes out of the ordinary. This series reminds us that even the things we are used to seeing can be beautiful if photographed in a creative way and composed carefully.

This image really stood out to me from the whole series, Shore has cleverly used a billboard to his advantage framing it precisely in the middle of the composition to make it appear as a continuation of the horizon. The actual sky is really bright and picturesque which is ironic as it is blocked out by a scene with a darker, less idealistic sky. This image evokes feelings of pity as the ‘beauty’ in the image is not natural it is a man-made construct which is blocking the actual horizon line. This alludes to the consumerist nature of America and society at the time, billboards were everywhere, replacing nature with obtrusive images. Your eye is drawn straight to the billboard which could represent how society is distracted by unattainable advertisements and goals rather than appreciating the natural beauty of the world. The colour palette is consistent to that of the rest of the book, the colour palette throughout ‘Uncommon Places’ blends nicely together to create a cohesive series. The tones are slightly muted and have a vintage feel to them which personally I really like the aesthetic this creates.

I will emulate Shore’s work in my photo book as I want my layout to be minimalistic as well, I want to have a page of text at the start which sums up my project then throughout I want the images to fill the majority of the pages with only short pieces of text e.g. quotes which come directly from the Nuns. I also strive to maintain Shore’s objectivity in my work, his work presents things as they happen without his opinion or narrative, I want to document life at the Convent as it is happening.