Lot 146
STEPHEN SHORE (B. 1947)
Group of photographs from Uncommon Places, 1973-1979
Closed7 October 2009
Price Realised
USD 37,500
More Information
Specialist note
In an interview with writer Lynn Tillman, Shore describes the transition from American Surfaces (1973) to Uncommon Places (1973-1979):
"After 'American Surfaces' I wanted to make larger prints than snapshot-size. The film Kodacolor made in 1972 and 1973 was so crude that larger prints fell apart. They became much too grainy. After doing a couple of trips with a 4x5, I was dissatisfied with the quality of the enlargements. There was an immediacy to the smaller prints that I wasn't seeing in the larger prints, so I decided to go to a larger format camera, the 8x10, which allowed me to do some pictures of the kind in 'American Surfaces' better than I could do before. But then doing the more cumbersome shots became cumbersome and akward. I remember shooting pancakes that I had for breakfast when I had to stand on top of the chair because the camera had to be so far from the pancakes to focus." (Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, p. 182)
"After 'American Surfaces' I wanted to make larger prints than snapshot-size. The film Kodacolor made in 1972 and 1973 was so crude that larger prints fell apart. They became much too grainy. After doing a couple of trips with a 4x5, I was dissatisfied with the quality of the enlargements. There was an immediacy to the smaller prints that I wasn't seeing in the larger prints, so I decided to go to a larger format camera, the 8x10, which allowed me to do some pictures of the kind in 'American Surfaces' better than I could do before. But then doing the more cumbersome shots became cumbersome and akward. I remember shooting pancakes that I had for breakfast when I had to stand on top of the chair because the camera had to be so far from the pancakes to focus." (Uncommon Places: The Complete Works, p. 182)