The Nature of Photographs
by Stephen Shore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stephen ShoreEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-02-01
ISBN: 071484585X
Number of pages: 136
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Book Reviews of The Nature of Photographs
Book Review: Back to the Basics
Summary: 5 Stars
There are a few books about photography that are so fundamental that every serious photographer should read them. These include books that discuss the underlying assumptions of photography that many photographers just take for granted. "The Nature of Photographs: a Primer" by Stephen Shore is such a book.
The book is deceptively simple. Shore sets out to describe "the physical and formal attributes of a photographic print" (although, it seemed to me, the work applied equally to an image on a monitor) "that form the tools a photographer uses to define and interpret...content." For example he suggests that at the depictive level there are four separate ways the camera transforms the world into a photograph: flatness, frame, time and focus. Each of the discussion points is supported by great images from photographic history, taken by photographers as diverse as Timothy O'Sullivan and Paul Caponigro.
The text is short, capable of being read in less than an hour. However a useful reading requires a lingering over the photographs presented. For example, in commenting upon a picture of a clear-cut hillside, Shore says that photographer Robert Adams could frame a picture so that a railroad track appearing in a corner could enhance the meaning of the image. When I first glanced at the picture, I looked for an obvious railroad right-of-way, but closer examination showed a single railroad track just appearing in the bottom corner. One might have thought it was unavoidably included, a mere accident. But realizing that Adams was not so casual gave a whole new level of meaning to the photograph. Moreover it suggested to me that important elements of a photograph need not be obviously highlighted, and that, just as creating a good photograph requires more time and thought than a hasty click of the shutter, exploring a photograph might require more than the usual three seconds of looking committed by the average viewer.
Shore himself is a great photographer, appearing in the seminal 1997 "New Topographics" show, but the photographs he uses to illustrate his thesis cover the entire range of imagery. The book was originally published in 1998, but Phaidon has issued reprints regularly since 2007. Interestingly the 2010 reprint is available on Amazon at a lower price than the 2007 reprint which is only available from Amazon sellers. (The less expensive print is available at The Nature of Photographs: A Primer.)
I'm certain many photographers will say "I know what a photograph is, and how it works." I challenge this assumption. Examine this book, its text and its images. If you can say it added nothing to your understanding of photographs, my hat is off to you.
Summary of The Nature of Photographs
This book grew out of a college course that Stephen Shore taught for many years. Its aim is not to explore photographic content - the subject of an image - but to describe the physical and formal attributes of a photographic print, the very elements that form the tools a photographer uses to define and interpret that content. By teaching us how to look at photographs and helping us to see the world the way the photographer may have seen it, Shore also teaches us a way of looking at the world around us. "The Nature of Photographs" is a primary tool for critical analysis and the understanding of photography in general. As one of the photographers who established colour photography as a legitimate medium of artistic expression in the early 1970s and an influential and important teacher of both the theory and practice of photography, Stephen Shore is the ideal guide to the subject of 'how' to look at photographs. By putting himself in the shoes of the photographers, he imagines the concerns or approach to the subject or concept they may have had when they were taking the picture. As well as a selection of Shore's own work, "The Nature of Photographs" contains images from all eras of photography, from classic images by Walker Evans, Brassai and Eugene Atget to more contemporary work by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Cindy Sherman, Joel Sternfeld, Thomas Struth, Richard Prince and Andreas Gursky. It includes all genres, such as street photography, fine art photography and documentary photography, as well as images by unknown photographers, be they in the form of a snapshot from the early days of photography or an aerial photograph taken as part of a geographical survey. Shore has selected images by, among others, Eugene Atget, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston and Robert Adams, and offers an explanation as to how they 'work'. Together with his clear, intelligent and accessible text, Shore uses these works to demonstrate how the world in front of the camera is transformed into a photograph.Artists, A-Z Books
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