192 - Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited for the past forty-five years. He was the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, forty years earlier. He has also had one-man shows at George Eastman House, Rochester; Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Art Institute of Chicago. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art opened a major retrospective spanning Stephen Shore's entire career. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His series of exhibitions at Light Gallery in New York in the early 1970s sparked new interest in color photography and in the use of the view camera for documentary work.More than 25 books have been published of Stephen Shore's photographs including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works; American Surfaces; Stephen Shore, a retrospective monograph in Phaidon's Contemporary Artists series; Stephen Shore: Survey and most recently, Transparencies: Small Camera Works 1971-1979 and Stephen Shore: Elements. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art published Stephen Shore in conjunction with their retrospective of his photographic career.Stephen also wrote The Nature of Photographs, published by Phaidon Press, which addresses how a photograph functions visually. His work is represented by 303 Gallery, New York; and Sprüth Magers, London and Berlin. Since 1982 he has been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College, NY, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts.His new book, Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography. A Memoir, was published by Mack Books in 2021.<br /> On episode 192, Stephen discusses, among other things:How the new book came aboutHow it differs from previous book, The Nature of Photographs.Artist’s superstition over discussing the creative processThe importance of experimentationShowing and not explainingPhotography as a ‘generous medium’Creating the book as an ‘experience’Structure vs. compositionInclusion vs. exclusionMastering the discipline - 3 phasesDoes he believe in The Muse?Being attentive in the midst of lifeWorking with a performance coachThe influence of paintings… and Walker EvansThe nature (and importance) of ambitionGetting a solo show at The Met, aged 23Sustaining driveHis interest in drone photography… and InstagramThe day he realised the 8x10 camera was for himReferenced:The Nature of PhotographsLee FriedlanderGarry WinograndBruno BettelheimRichard AvedonJerry GoldsmithGregory CrewdsonGeorge Elio