#backfocus

BackFocus - Stephen Shore (b. 1947)

Self-taught photographer Stephen Shore is being noted as one of the first photographers to use colour as an art form and not for advertising purposes, by documenting America’s various dusty backroads and through his accounts with diverse characters.

It was at the age of 14, after a bald move to call MoMa’s photography curator Edward Steichen to show his work, that Shore started to emerge upon New York’s art scene. His main focus then became Andy Warhol’s Factory, and its elite members such as Lou Reed and Edie Sedgwick and of course Warhol himself. By capturing them in their daily environment, Shore shone a light on these then almost mythological personas...

“He was very open and unaffected. He would say things he wouldn’t have said in a more public situation.” - Shore on Warhol

Rod LaRod, Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey, 1965.

His vast collection of work and connections lead him to become the second living photographer to have a one man show at the MET, at just 24 years old. Shortly after that Shore started to work in color, revolutionising the then monochrome field of street and scene photography. He travelled across the country, capturing every single aspect he encountered, from the meals he ate to the hostels he visited. 

Back then the only way to get films processed was to send them to the Kodak factory, which came back with small printed snapshots. 

This is why Shore decided to revisit and re-shoot some of his earlier work with a larger camera, to then have a bigger film surface and crisper results. By doing so - and by shifting from passenger to the driver’s perspective - he discovered a new way of shooting, resulting in series such as American Surfaces and Uncommon Places.

Lookout Hotel, Ogunquit, Maine, July 16, 1974

In the past ten years or so, Shore had tilted his work to a digital platform - even starting his own Instagram account - which gives a new dimension to his work while keeping his inimitable perspective.