Stephen Shore Key Info Stephen Shore was the first living photographer since Alfred Stieglitz, to have a one- man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He s been director of photography at Bard College since 1982. He was only 23 years old when he had his one- man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Shore was interested in photography at a young age and taught himself how to expose and print photographs between the ages of 6 and 10. Personal Quotes Crewdson: Was American Surfaces the first time you ventured out into the American landscape and became more directly fascinated with that iconography? Shore: Yes, but it had been brewing for a couple of years. I became friendly with a group of young people from Amarillo who all were living in New York, and every summer they would go back to Amarillo to spend the summer. I started going with them in 1969. It was an eye- opening experience. To spend two months in the Texas Panhandle and use that as a base for travel, I experienced part of the country I hadn t experienced before and it made me want to explore the rest of the country. Crewdson: What words of advice would you give a young photographer? Shore: Don t try to please anyone else, unless you are going to Bard or Yale. Photo District News http://www.pdnonline.com/features/heroes- and- Mentors- St- 3200.shtml Digital cameras had to have helped. I think digital made it easier. I guess I could have done it with film. But it seemed to flow with digital. There s something light and spontaneous in the touch of digital sometimes. Did being so conspicuous affect the photos? The year before American Surfaces, in 71, I was using a small 35 mm. I had hair to my shoulders and looked sort of like a hippie, and every now and then I d be photographing in a neighbourhood and some resident would call the police. The cops would ask me, What are you doing? and every now and then I was told to get out of the neighbourhood. Once I started using a view camera that never happened. That the camera is so conspicuous gives it even greater license. The extreme examples of this are two works from a series that I ve never shown before New York City photographs that I did with an 8x10 of people interacting on the street. And I d never before been more invisible. I would stand at 72nd and Broadway or 52nd and 5th with this big camera, and people would just walk around me. I photographed people at crosswalks, people hailing a cab, and I d be six feet away from them taking their picture with an 8x10 camera, and no one would be paying any attention to me.
Vice.com http://www.vice.com/read/stephen- shore- 943- v16n7 AS: How would you choose the people you photographed? SS: I might have a camera set up to do a piece of architecture, and someone would walk by, and I start talking to them. You know, what are you doing and I ll start talking to them. Or maybe it was at their homes. Maybe I was photographing a residential neighbourhood, and I d photograph the people at their home. Seesawmagazine.com http://seesawmagazine.com/shore_pages/shore_interview.html American Surfaces The photo series American Surfaces looks into the different aspects of life in early 70 s. Steven Shore travelled across the United States taking hundreds of coloured photographs on a wide variety of subjects ranging from people, signs, building and many more. This series doesn t seem to have any particular order to it. I have chosen these two photos as they focuses on the American home rather than the whole of America like the rest of the photo series. The way the radio clock is positioned up high in the coroner of the room suggests that radio clock is the primary form of entertainment in the home. The photo of the very classic American TV dinner caught my attention the most out of the photo series. When I see this photo, it reminds me of the Simpsons sat in front of the TV eating. The lighting in the photos clearly shows the use of a flash from the strong shadow of the arm in the radio clock photo and from the reflection of light off of the cooker in the TV dinner photo. From research I have found out that Steven Shore had no control over the processing of his photos as he took them to a retail store to get them developed, much like a family coming back from holiday with their photos. This and the way the photos where taken, gives this photo series the feel of a family vacations where you more or less take photos of everything you see.
Martin Parr Martin Parr is a documentary photographer and photojournalist who uses different photographic techniques to show the lifestyles of people particularly that of the British. His focus in his early years was up in the north of England photographing what a summer is in the north of England. Martin Parr s photographic spark was encouraged from a young age by his grandfather who was an amateur photographer. His more recent work consists of commercial photography with Magnum Photos. Some of his clients have been in the fashion industry such as Urban Outfitters. Martin Parr has also done work for Nintendo with 2 other Magnum photographers. Key Facts Martin Parr is a collector of many things such as wall papers, wrist watches and printed dinner trays. His collecting habits border on being classed as a hoarder. Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey into a middle class family in 1952. His photo series The Last Resort was received with different views when released in the north of England compared to the south and London. Those in the north saw the photo series as a recording of normal summer life in the north. While the south and London saw the photos and criticised martin as if he had created the scene of the child play with rubbish on the beach. They could not understand that this is what a normal north summer sometimes consisted of back in the early 70 s. Quotes Extra: A lot of these image flows are clichés or, a word you often use, propaganda. Can you explain what you mean by that? Martin Parr: Most of the images we see are a form of propaganda because they have an agenda. Although all photography has an agenda, photography in the advertising and commercial world in particular is only good for selling an image. Or in case of a family snapshot, it is to sell the notion of the perfect family. I am not saying that independent photographers don t have an agenda, because they certainly do: you can send two photographers to the same city and they would come up with entirely different pictures. One a very positive, one a very negative. http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/05/interview- interview- martin- parr.html You do a lot of different things, how do you choose which projects to pursue? MP: I consider myself a photographer with a foot in both the commercial and the art world. I have an overwhelming timetable, and I can t do many of things I m asked to do, so everything is taken on its merit. 40/50% of the work I take is self- initiated. I don t go to hotspots, so you won t see me going to Iraq or Afghanistan. French
colonies in Africa are difficult to photograph, and I have no great desire to photograph them anyway. Though I have just been to Marrakesh for a photo shoot for Urban Outfitters. http://crackmagazine.net/art/martin- parr/ The Last Resort The photo series The Last Resort is a photographic story of a British summer in New Brighton during 1983 to 1985. This series was created to capture what a British summer is like for those who s nearest beach may be covered in rubbish or poorly maintained. It also shows how the British public would make do with what they have rather than do nothing at all. I have chosen this image because what it shows can be interpreted in different ways depending on who looks at it. As I said above when these photos where shown in London and the southern parts of the country, people criticised Martin Parr for what he was showing. What is being shown is a kid sat on a wall with his feet dipped into the water. Sat on the wall with him is an elderly woman possible his grandmother with a towel and the boy s shoes and socks. Next to them is rubbish that has been washed up onto the beach and coastline. The fact that the grandmother is allowing the boy to play in the water next to all the rubbish could come across as if she is being careless, but on the other hand this does show what Martin Parr is trying to communicate. He s not showing a careless grandmother he is show a normal British summer in New Brighton. He shows what people have to make do with when it s the only beach nearest to them, the only other alternative is to travel long distances but this would of cost money these families may not of had. On the technical side of the image, I first believed that this photo was taken using a 35mm camera and then possible cropped, but after doing some research I found out that Martin Parr was using a Makina Plaubel with a 55mm lens. This camera uses a different format to a 35mm camera know as 6x7, which was 56x70mm in size making the photo mostly squared. Judging from the lighting and the shadows it seems that Martin Parr used a flash for this photo series. For example in the photo above the boy and grandmother are more strongly lit than the people in background who are only about 1-2 meters further back. Also the shadows of the people walking past in the background are being cast to the right of the photo while the boy and grandmother don t seem to have a shadow at all. The two other photos from The Last Resort show the same point that Martin Parr is communicating across with his photos. The technical aspect of the photos is the same as the photo above.
The first photo is the same scenario as the photo above. A boy is playing by the waters edges where rubbish has accumulated. In the background the boy s mother sits watching as he plays. What is most striking about this photo is that the boy is playing by the rubbish while completely naked. This photo also raises questions as to why the mother is a letting her son play near the rubbish never mind while being naked. Other questions could be why has Martin Parr photographed this or has he set this up to create a shocking photo for effect. The second image I have chosen shows a family together eating. Right in front of them is an overflowing bin with rubbish surrounding it on the floor. The pram belonging to the family looks to be on top of the rubbish suggesting there was nowhere else for them to place it. This image highlights the heavy use of the New Brighton seaside in two ways. The first being that the bins are in constant use to the point that the bins are not being emptied regularly enough to keep up with tourist use. Secondly the family are sitting eating right next to an overflowing bin, which suggests there was nowhere else for them to sit in the area.