Stephen Shore

Quick Biography
● American Photographer
● Born in 1947, grew up on New York City’s Upper East Side
● Only child
● Learned and practiced photography from the age of six years old
● At age fourteen his work was bought by Edward Steichen for the
collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York
● Shore emerged in the 1970s as one of the major exponents of color
photography
● Shore exhibited an ability to transform commonplace surroundings into
compelling works of art
Diving Deeper
● Shore spent much of his time photographing Andy Warhol and his entourage at The Factory,
which is where he initially was able to absorb the New York art scene

● In 1971, he became the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York

● Shore began on his first road trip in the summer of 1972 which resulted in his series American
Surfaces. Shore focused on capturing the people, places and objects he encountered,
producing a series of consciously casual and intimate snapshots.

● While shore continued to document his travels he wanted to explore a greater visual
intentionality and, therefore, began his next series of work in 1973 entitled Uncommon Places.
Here Shore focuses on the details of modern life in America, capturing anonymous
intersections, architecture, drive-by diners, and generic motel rooms and gas stations. All of
which were shot using color film and a view camera, a combination that had rarely been put to
use in recording America’s social landscape.
Progression
of his art
1967
This black and white photo is one of the
many Shore took at Andy Warhol’s studio,
The Factory. This photo is so striking
because of its intimacy. These people are
being captured in an unguarded, ordinary
moment. Shore had a talent for recognizing
the value of the everyday and capturing it
which is very clear in this photo.
1972
This photograph of an intersection in
Oklahoma is among the image sequence
known as American Surfaces. This is
another example of Shore capturing the
everyday. American Surfaces is intended
to be seen as a sequence, in which the
minor details of life on the road, including
food on tables, beds, motels, and gas
stations such as this photo, build to
communicate a sense of the North
American interior as an anonymous
monotony.
1973
This image is from Shore’s most
well-known series, Uncommon Places.
Shore took this photo along with others
during his first year working on
Uncommon Places. This photo required
Shore to stand on a chair and raise the
camera, attached to a tripod, above him on
an angle in the middle of the diner. The
apparent simplicity of the image erases
the difficulty in which the camera was
balanced.
1977
This photo is indicative of the way in
which Shore’s work in Uncommon Places
developed over the course of the 1970s. It
really shows Shore’s expressive use of
vivid color and the bright acidic blue
produces an emotional response from the
viewer.

Fun fact: The woman in this photo later

became Shore’s wife
2002
Stephen Shore returned to working in
black and white in the 1990s due to a
desire to expand his practice through
experimentation. This image was printed at
a large scale, unlike Shore’s earlier work,
leading the audience to feel included in,
rather than distanced from, the scene,
distorting expectations of black and white
photography as creating a barrier between
audience and subject.
2010
Shore has regularly accepted commissions
alongside his artistic work. This
photograph was taken as part of a
commission for which he travelled to
Israel. Shore was one of twelve
photographers commissioned to work on
this project which was organized by
Frédéric Brenner an artist who was deeply
invested in the portrayal of Jewish
community internationally.
2012
This photo was from a series that Shore
shot of Holocaust survivors in Ukraine. In
this series, Shore turns toward the
question of depicting subject matter with
a strong emotional charge.
 “To see something spectacular and recognise it as a
photographic possibility is not making a very big leap.
But to see something ordinary, something you’d see
everyday, and recognize it as a photographic
possibility- that is what I am interested in.”
—Stephen Shore
Uncommon
Places
West Fifteenth Street and Vine Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 15, 1974
Sha-Mar Beauty Salon, Chestnut Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1973
Thirty-First Avenue and Crescent Street, Queens, New York, October 28, 1974
Bridge Street, Mexico, Maine, July 30, 1974
Slot Car Raceway, Fourth Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1973
Imitation
Project
Resources
International Center of Photography. "Stephen Shore." ICP,
www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/stephen-shore?all/all/all/all/0

Stephen Shore. www.stephenshore.net

"Stephen Shore." The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/shore-stephen/

"Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places." Sprüth Magers,

www.spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/stephen-shore-uncommon-places-berlin/