After reading Gideon Jacobs’ article on Stephen Shore, I was fascinated by his take on the work and reminded of how much I enjoy Shore’s photographs. I decided therefore, that Shore would be another useful photographer to look at. I also found a useful video where Shore speaks a bit about his own process and style of working [below].
Shore’s images of food are probably my favourite. It’s such a simple subject, yet it plays a huge part in our everyday lives. It’s interesting how it’s often the most integral part of our lives are overlooked in photography, because they are considered mundane or unattractive. Shore photographs them in a way that makes it seem almost accidental, yet somehow they are also strategically framed. Framing and perspective is an important feature in Shore’s work – as Jacobs discusses in his article. I must try and consider how I want to frame my own photos and what element of the ordinary and everyday this can help bring to the image.
These images [right] are from Shore’s American road trip, where he simply documented various everyday things he saw in repetition along his journey (television boxes, toilets, food, beds he slept in, people he met etc.) I could consider looking at his Road trip Journal as my project develops. It’s still early stages but I think I would be interested in making a book for my final submission, so this will definitely be a potential project to come back to.
I also found this short clip of Stephen Shore talking about his practice, which I found helped me understand his method and intentions much more clearly. A few things he says in this clip particularly stood out to me:
When referring to his series ‘American Surfaces’, Shore explains why he focused his camera on food for a lot of the work. ‘Food was fascinating. I engage with it at least three times a day.’ – This stood out to me because it’s such a simple reason. There’s no big, philosophical intention behind his chosen subject other than it’s something familiar; something that takes up a substantial portion of our lives, yet often isn’t really looked at. Today, photographing your food for Instagram is a common practice for many. But Shore doesn’t care about making it look nice for a food blog or an Insta story – he photographs it because it’s there and it’s a huge part of everyone’s everyday.
As well as his subject matter, another interesting element of Shore’s work is his perspective. This is talked about a lot in Jacobs’ article as well. Shore explains, ‘How to take a picture that felt natural… I wanted to take a picture that looked like seeing. If you can imagine the difference between how you speak and how you write and that there is a little bit more formality… to how you write – I wanted to explore that difference. Is there a difference between how I see and how I photograph and why is there that difference? And can I overcome it by being aware of it?’ – I think this is a really interesting point. We often spend so much time constructing and framing our images, just as we would spend more time constructing a sentence if we were to write than if we were to say it. Maybe the key to achieving photographs that are a reflection of the ordinary and the everyday, is to find that balance between constructing a photograph and simply snapping something as if just ‘seeing’ it. I think it’s the almost ‘accidental’ perspectives of Eggleston and Shore’s photographs that makes them so successful.
The final point that Shore makes is on the topic of his photo ‘Grilled Cheese Sandwich’. He explains that it’s ‘more about really looking at the world with attention, seeing in a state of heightened awareness.’ In other words, it’s easy to take a picture of something impressive, but to take a successful photo of something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich requires far more awareness of your surroundings. This is what I want to express throughout this project.
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