SHORE INSPO

A handful of my favorite photos by Shore and some inspiration for possible design aesthetic of my font and print materials...

Notes on Stephen Shore:

~ screen shots of his field of vision

~ really observes what he is seeing and how he sees it

~ takes inspiration from Bill Eggleston and Walker Evans

~ low key spectacle

~ common place becoming splendid

~ color was not seen/used in fine art photography in 1970s

~ his photos change the way people look at ordinary things

~ large format photos

~ explores medium, perception, psychological levels

~ sense of time being compressed

~ what world looks like in state of heightened awareness

~ looks at world with clear and focused attention

~ a lot of art is decision making

~ spends a lot of time exploring structure and space of picture

~ growing structural complexity

~ reinvents himself over time to raise new questions

~ interest in postcards, snapshots, visual diary

~ analyzes experience of travel and what he discovers in America

~ looks at repeated events: 

(what he is eating, who he is meeting, what beds he is sleeping in)

~ shows what was on his mind at the time

~ interest in taking photos that strip away artifice of visual convention

~ wants a more immediate experience

~ highest complement - "your pictures are so clear"

~ "the apparent is the bridge to the real"

~ not sentimental, but natural and unaffected

~ has no style - his style is the result of his own exploration

~ responds more to the mundane than the dramatic

~ naturalness is just another posture; visual casualness is just another style

~ produces images that are generated by conceptual framework

~ allows for visual articulateness

~ visual poetry

~ work stems from intentionality

~ searches/documents not just the main streets across America, but the quintessential main street

~ how does the world he wants to photograph translate into an image?

~ one point perspective - vanishing point in center

~ dense information to organize

~ common, typical subjects

~ takes screen shot of field of vision

~ work is not framed, not matted, and posted on wall on grid of 3 rows

~ color raises all types of issues

~ every culture and age has a palette of color

~ color can communicate elements of taste of specific time period and culture of that time period

~ he takes ordinary desk objects and if in right state of mind, can make them look vivid, tactile, and alive