...Stephen Shore...

Stephen Shore is an American photographer famous for his deadpan images and pioneering colour in contemporary art photography.

He first became interested in photography at the age of 6 when he received a dark room kit for a present. At the young age of 9 he started developing his own colour images using his 35mm camera. When he was 17 he was lucky enough to meet Andy Warhol, and took pictures in his studio. He later went on to taking pictures of the American Landscape which he is well known for. He was also the first person to have a one-person exhibition at the Museum.

In 1972, he made a trip from New York to Texas, taking many pictures that provoked his interest in Photography. He got the idea to use colour in his images when looking through the streets and towns he passed on his journey. At first he used a 35mm, then a 4x5 view camera before he finally settled on a 8x10 format camera.

His book, Uncommon Places, published in 1982, has been called the bible for the new colour photographers. This is because not unlike William Eggleston, his work has proved that a colour photograph can be a work of art, like a painting or black and white photograph. People such as Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Joel Sternfeld, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky has all said they are influenced by Shores work.

His work actually reminds me alot of Lee Friedlander's work, although I prefer Friedlander, and has similar tones in the images. Looking through some of his images I see alot of photographs that remind me of Friedlander's and it may be why I like them.

References -

• http://wwar.com/masters/s/shore-stephen.html
• The Nature Of Photography - Stephen Shore
• http://www.303gallery.com/docs/Shore-bio.pdf
• http://www.artnet.com/artist/15493/stephen-shore.html