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Much in the same way Edward Hopper explored solitude and banality in industrialized America, Stephen Shore sought many of those same themes irl, taking interest in familiar locations like gas stations or motel swimming pools.
Shore shot a lot of his work (most notably his book Uncommon Places) on road trips across the United States, and would meticulously journal his activities as he progressed from East to West. Reading about what Shore had for breakfast and what the room he watched television in looked like the morning he took photos like the one below is really enjoyable, particularly when his activities feel almost as antiquated as the parking lots of wing-tipped Cadillacs he photographs.
His photos ultimately reveal an extreme technical proficiency and mastery of composition, which allows us to look at extinct moments with full lucidity.
Shore shot a lot of his work (most notably his book Uncommon Places) on road trips across the United States, and would meticulously journal his activities as he progressed from East to West. Reading about what Shore had for breakfast and what the room he watched television in looked like the morning he took photos like the one below is really enjoyable, particularly when his activities feel almost as antiquated as the parking lots of wing-tipped Cadillacs he photographs.
His photos ultimately reveal an extreme technical proficiency and mastery of composition, which allows us to look at extinct moments with full lucidity.
Dec 9, 2024
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🏙The biggest influence on my personal photography has to be the New Topographics movement; modern landscapes defined by the visible tension between the natural world and the manmade. Landscapes of mundane structures in post-war America: parking lots, suburban homes, crumbling coal mines, dying malls. Notable artists include Stephen Shore, Edward Burtynsky (the GOAT), William Eggleston, Brian Ulrich, Bernd and Hila Becher, Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams.
6d ago
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Why do people leave the beautiful scenery that is a Midwest Highschool to the mediocre photographers like myself?
Get Jerry Uelsmann in here and his work is practically done for him!
Get Jerry Uelsmann in here and his work is practically done for him!
Feb 2, 2025
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📷Larry Sultan’s masterworks. My cinematographer David Bolen and I drew so much from both of these books, not just stylistically but also from Sultan’s process of “riffing off of reality.” These two books informed the look of our film, encouraging us to dig deeper and find the proper visual language that reflected our Utopian setting. We wanted the film to look somewhere between a Sultan photo and the Technicolor sheen in a Douglas Sirk Melodrama.
Feb 11, 2021
Top Recs from @willreschke
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☄️Last Thursday, a meteor appeared in the night sky over Los Angeles. I stood in place for 30 seconds watching it blaze brilliant red and orange before fizzling out suddenly. The experience moved me immensely and filled me with a sense of hope that I hadn’t felt in quite some time. I read later that it was a SpaceX satellite. I wish I hadn’t.
Feb 25, 2024
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💦There's something about a wet and humid early morning that heals my soul. It's like a free sound bath. Especially if you are lucky and have a little bit of thunder alongside.
May 8, 2024
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I have done this everywhere that I have lived. There are some beautiful images lost on the discarded blank face of a postcard, and they deserve to be cherished just as much as the big piece of art you have framed in your living room. You can find many for cheap at your local thrift. There’s a lot of fun to be had in grouping different images together for a collage effect. Space them out a bit more if it all feels a bit claustrophobic. Use some blue painter's tape for a pop of color.
Jun 15, 2025