Description
Essex County by Stephen Shore. First edition (2002). First impression. Large format hardback in new condition. Signed by Stephen Shore to title page. No markings. This is a brand new book. Please see pictures. PayPal accepted, any questions please get in touch.
About Essex County
Made 20 years after Uncommon Places, Shore’s newest imagery, upon first reading, seems to have done an about-face from the course set two decades ago. For one thing, they’re black-and-white. For another, these are close-ups of tree trunks, moss-covered rocks, and subtle, almost quaint photographs of leaves dusting the forest floor. But in a recent phone conversation–Shore was driving to Parent’s Day at his son’s Connecticut college–he convincingly elaborated the vital relationship between these two disparate bodies of work, cemented not by the fact of the 8×10 view camera that has remained his companion, but rather by ideas.
The view camera monumentalises things by close observation, by saturation of detail. Shore stated that this fact so often stymies students who search for a subject worthy of such attention. But one doesn’t have to find something monumental to photograph. Though it’s true that, for Shore, the 8×10 equates with a heightened sense of awareness in the world, that awareness can be applied to the everyday. This is the essential link between the earlier color work and this rich new body of images.
Artist Bio
Stephen Shore 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 and American Surfaces, photographs that he took on cross-country road trips in the 1970s.
Related Links
More books by Stephen Shore here.
More books by Nazraeli Press here.
