On Stephen Shore - American Objects.
- American Objects -
It wasnt easy understanding in depth Shore's technique and inspirations behind his works. An analysis in the form of a triptik deemed best to compare his apparent transitions or "alterations".
Taken from one of his infamous projects "American Objects", these three pictures pretty much sum up his approaches when behind the camera lens. The first depicts the concept of a "frame inside a frame", as previously seen in Luigi Ghirri's horizon photo. However, this one appears more personal, and upon first contact with the photo, we begin to question ourselves - Who is this man? How is he related to the photographer? Why did he choose to represent that image in that way? This abstract, yet close proximity to the being in the picture leaves it fall within a more personal category, an informal experience of some sort, where we are placed into a third person's perspective, merely observing the personal emotion between man and photo.
Next, we stumble upon another "portrait" of some sort, or what should have been one before something "went wrong" - a deliberate action taken by the photographer. A decisive moment, just a moment after it would have ideally been, to really get this womans attention, before she was distracted. She is half naked in the foreground of the image against a wall. Nothing surrounds her, which acts to merge all planes into one flat surface.
Last but not least, we initially notice the absence of any human figures or faces- solely elements scattered on a table. There seems to be no sense of alignment whatsoever, implying a hastened photography process- maybe just a simple documentation of a daily routine- or even, deliberately taken that way to suggest an informal/ unsettling relationship or experience the photographer had in that specific context. In the latter case, the initiative would serve more as a visual diary than anything else.
Through these images, we fail to see the images as they are, but rather, as a reflection of how Stephen Shore himself saw the places he visited.
A reflection of himself in his photographs, his experiences. His visual diary.
