Stephen Shore
In 1972, Stephen Shore began a photographic road trip that lasted for little more than a year in total, but provided the material for his iconic American Surfaces project, which examined everyday American culture. Armed only with a 35mm Rollei camera, he created a visual diary of the places he’d been, the meals he’d eaten, the beds he’d slept in, and the people he’d met along the way.
Fast-forward 48 years from the start of Shore’s trip, and a newly updated version of his book American Surfaces has been published. It now includes an essay by writer and photographer Teju Cole, plus 40 images that didn’t appear in the original edition. We spoke to Stephen Shore to get under the skin of how he approached this project, and to discover the inside story of his artistic journey over a period of nearly 50 years…
What motivated you to start the American Surfaces project?
A number of things came together. The first was the idea of what I, at the time, thought of as a ‘natural photograph’. What I mean is you take a photograph that felt more like the experience of seeing rather than the experience of photographing, if that makes sense.
What I did as an exercise was, at various random times during the day, just to become aware of my field of vision, as though I were, to use a modern term, taking a screenshot of my field of
