This group focuses on place without subject.
The images within this group follow, before being connected with Stephen Shore:
The composition of the buildings within this image make it look like the car sales is alienated on its own without the space. But the telephone mast in the centre of the image contrasts the view, as the wires show how its connected to objects outside of the frame.
This image connects well with Shores work on uncommon spaces because one asks where is the disabled person who has left this outside the amusement arcade. Also the mobility scooter contrasts the amusements sign, due to them being seen as opposite things.
This photo doesn't fit entirely within this group due to there being a few people within the frame but the main focus is not on them which is why I have included it. Even with the few subjects, the area still looks lifeless and without reason, much like Shores work.
The arrow and the houses both pull the viewers eye up the frame to what feels like an empty space because there is just a few trees, this makes the area feel increasingly reasonless.
I like the composition of this image because the viewer is inside the building looking out, as if they were escaping, but instead of a clear view its cluttered with a tree and building. This image could be read that one can't escape the area, which suggests its negativity.
Stephen Shore is an American photographer known for his images of unusual scenes and objects throughout the United States. He was one of the first photographers to use colour images in his work. Shore made the journey from Manhattan to Amarillo with his friend who had both never been outside of New York, while on this Shore documented the journey in colour using his 35mm camera before moving onto a 4x5" then 8x10. The towns and villages he passed were all without much point to them, which is very much like my series on Swinton, as I too feel the area exists with little reason. When he began using a large format camera he found he had to start taking photographs in a completely different way than before, because you cant simply just take a snapshot as the large format takes a while to set up and needs a tripod. These restrictions pushed Shore to improve his work and make each photograph count. What the large format did allow him to do was capture large amounts of detail in a few seconds, meaning he could take complicated photographs with lots of information, which his viewer could then spend the same amount of time it took him to set up the image, viewing it.
Shore exhibited the large collection of work throughout the 1970's and was met with great approval from the art world. But in 1981 he felt that he had answered all the creative questions behind the project and put an end to the project. After gathering his contact prints he approached the Aperture foundation hoping they would publish the entire collection, but they could only offer a limited budget, which forced shore to cut the series down to forty images. In 1982 'Uncommon Places' was published and was instantly appreciated through-out the art world, inspiring many young colour photographers.
Shores images throughout uncommon places are shot with his own opinion on the areas he visited. They rarely included any people within the frames which I believe reflects how he felt alone while on the road visiting these areas so far away from his family, not including people also makes the scenes look very 'uncommon' because the areas are lifeless. His images document the happenings of the everyday throughout the 1970's within America. His style of capturing the series was very un-intrusive, merely just composing his camera on a street corner or in a parking lot, then capturing the surroundings he saw. What I like about his work is that the photographs look very normal until you begin studying the images and realise that there isn't anyone within the frames, which makes them eerily quiet. This idea of the scene looking normal before looking closer is something that I may carry on with through my project.
His photographs can be seen below:
