Stephen shore

The work of Stephen Shore can be considered as archaeology of the present. The photo ‘Beverly Boulevard at La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 21 June 1975’ from the series Uncommon Places is one of the most famous works by Stephen Shore and cannot be overlooked in the history of American photography. On the photo we see a typical American boulevard with lines of signs, gas stations, lampposts and traffic lights, seemingly chaotic and confusing, yet photographed with a geometric…

Frieze

Stephen Shore's photographs are attentive to ordinary scenes of daily experience, yet through color--and composition--Shore transforms the mundane into subjects of thoughtful meditation. A restaurant meal on a road trip, a billboard off a highway, and a dusty side street in a Texas town are all seemingly banal images, but upon reflection subtly imply meaning. Color photography attracted Shore for its ability to record the range and intensity of hues seen in life. In 1971, at age…

Over at World-Architects I did a write-up of Image Building , an exhibition that opened last weekend at the Parrish Art Museum. Some of my ...

Stephen Shore. Horseshoe Bend Motel, Lovell, Wyoming, July 16, 1973. 1973. Chromogenic print, printed 2013. 17 × 21 3/4" (43.2 × 55.2 cm). Acquired through the generosity of Robert B. Menschel. 355.2013.x1-x2. © 2025 Stephen Shore. Photography

Big Timber, Montana. All Photos © Stephen Shore Stephen Shore fondly recalls his Polaroid SX-70. Shore, known for color images of everyday America, in books like Uncommon Places and American Surfaces, loved the immediacy of the SX-70. “Whatever you observed and chose to picture was right there,” he says of that ingenious little device.

Stephen Shore, Merced River, Yosemite National Park, California, August 13, 1979.

Stephen Shore: Selected Works, 1973–1981 (Aperture, 2017)