Stephen Shore

          Stephan Shore is an American photographer. Self taught, he became an amazing photographer by the age of 17. At only 24 his work was put at a solo exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. But what makes his work so unique? Stephan Shore is mostly known for his expressionless images of ordinary scenes and objects, and for use of color photography, which was uncommon at the time.

         Stephen Shore was known for his photographs because they are things you see everyday. The way Stephen photographed these places is what made him become famous. In the picture below Stephan shows something we all commonly use. Something that you see everyday but the focal point is shown at a different angle, and from a different point of view. A simple gas station in Los Angeles. At the time color photography was expensive and not commonly used. This also made the photo more appealing.

La Brea Avenue and Beverly boulevard, Los Angeles

          Stephen’s photos are common things we see everyday. In the photo below he demonstrates another thing that we commonly use in everyday life. Stephen Shore's photos are also known for their time period. The photo below was taken in an older time period than today. If we look at these photographs today we can see the differences between then and today. In the photograph below we can see that the television, the table and even the suitcase are very different from things we have today. Taking the simplest room with only a few common house hold object’s, he changes the point of view completely.

                  The photo below also is a prime example of Stephen’s work. At the time color photos were very expensive. They also were not used all the time. Stephens photo below shows a lot of color and has very crisp colors. This made his photo at the time more appealing to the viewers. This picture is also makes the person looking at it think.

Stephan Shore is commonly known for his images of ordinary scenes and objects, and for use of color photography. Every photograph Stephan Shore takes has meaning. Each one creates a different feel and manipulating the point of view his pictures make you think. Stephen uses uncommon places to show different points of view. 

Alternative Process

This alternative process is called gel medium. In this process you take a picture you have taken, print it, and place it on a board. You then hold it down using tape and paint the gel onto the picture. I chose to make a laptop case. For my laptop case I needed twice the amount so I printed off two pictures. I started by brushing a thin layer vertically across the paper. Every time it dried I would put a thin layer the opposite way. This would make it thicker and stronger. Once I put around 15 layers on I waited until it dried and then put it in water. From there I scrubbed the paper off until it was as see through as possible. I then stretched it to make it fit the top of my laptop and used wires to make it stay on. The picture I used was one of the pictures from below (breaking the rules).

 

Toronto