Joel Sternfeld
14 Mar - 26 Apr 2014
© Joel Sternfeld
Green Valley, Arizona, 1978
Photograph, Pigment Print
21.5 x 32.5 cm. (8.5 x 12.8 in.)
Green Valley, Arizona, 1978
Photograph, Pigment Print
21.5 x 32.5 cm. (8.5 x 12.8 in.)
JOEL STERNFELD
First Pictures
14 March – 26 April 2014
The Buchmann Galerie is pleased to present a solo exhibition with photographs from the group of works entitled First Pictures by Joel Sternfeld.
Taken between 1971 and 1980, the First Pictures are outstanding examples of early American Color Photography. It was these pictures which laid the foundation for Joel Sternfeld’s career; in 1978 he received the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships on the basis of these works. Many aspects, which are relevant for his later work, can be seen in the First Pictures: the narrative quality, the ironical and tongue-in-cheek view of things and his focus on social, political and ecological subjects. Influenced by the color theories of Bauhaus, with the First Pictures Sternfeld began to build up his photographic images basing them on two or three dominant tones of color – a composition principle which, among other things, was to become pivotal in American Prospects (1978 – 1986).
The First Pictures are divided into four groups which are all on display at this exhibition.
In 1971 he started work on Happy Anniversary Sweetie Face! which presents photographs taken throughout more than seven years of road trips across the USA and bear reference to the later work of American Prospects. In this group of works Sternfeld experimented intensively with the basics of color photography, addressing in particular questions of color composition.
Nags Head shows scenes of the beach town of the same name in North Carolina where Joel Sternfeld spent the summer of 1975. With these images, the artist attempted to visually achieve a sense of temporal and spatial fluidity.
Rush Hour was created in 1976 on the streets of New York and Chicago. Sternfeld very often worked with a photoflash, taking hand-held shots. The pictures have a distinctive colorfulness and bold contrasts showing the people at a time which was characterized by the recession, memories of the Vietnam War still fresh in their minds and the Watergate Affair.
By contrast, the scene in At the Mall portrays a completely different situation. Sternfeld shows the persons portrayed in the setting of a shopping mall. Aware of the photographer and his camera, they show the things which they have just bought. A starting point to which Joel Sternfeld returns in Strangers Passing.
In his First Pictures Joel Sternfeld has succeeded in drawing a multifaceted portrait of American society of the 1970s and, for the first time, he precisely shapes some of his central artistic approaches. It is important to emphasize his pioneering approach of color photography which gained no credence whatsoever at the time. The fact that Joel Sternfeld also (and in particular) dealt with color theory and allowed it to influence his work makes his oeuvre even more important than it was until the current work groups, such as Oxbow Archive, emerged.
Between 2011 and 2013 the First Pictures were presented for the first time in an overview exhibition in the Folkwang Museum in Essen, in the FOAM Photography Museum in Amsterdam, in the Albertina in Vienna and at C|O in Berlin. They are published in book form at Steidl Publishers.
First Pictures
14 March – 26 April 2014
The Buchmann Galerie is pleased to present a solo exhibition with photographs from the group of works entitled First Pictures by Joel Sternfeld.
Taken between 1971 and 1980, the First Pictures are outstanding examples of early American Color Photography. It was these pictures which laid the foundation for Joel Sternfeld’s career; in 1978 he received the first of two Guggenheim Fellowships on the basis of these works. Many aspects, which are relevant for his later work, can be seen in the First Pictures: the narrative quality, the ironical and tongue-in-cheek view of things and his focus on social, political and ecological subjects. Influenced by the color theories of Bauhaus, with the First Pictures Sternfeld began to build up his photographic images basing them on two or three dominant tones of color – a composition principle which, among other things, was to become pivotal in American Prospects (1978 – 1986).
The First Pictures are divided into four groups which are all on display at this exhibition.
In 1971 he started work on Happy Anniversary Sweetie Face! which presents photographs taken throughout more than seven years of road trips across the USA and bear reference to the later work of American Prospects. In this group of works Sternfeld experimented intensively with the basics of color photography, addressing in particular questions of color composition.
Nags Head shows scenes of the beach town of the same name in North Carolina where Joel Sternfeld spent the summer of 1975. With these images, the artist attempted to visually achieve a sense of temporal and spatial fluidity.
Rush Hour was created in 1976 on the streets of New York and Chicago. Sternfeld very often worked with a photoflash, taking hand-held shots. The pictures have a distinctive colorfulness and bold contrasts showing the people at a time which was characterized by the recession, memories of the Vietnam War still fresh in their minds and the Watergate Affair.
By contrast, the scene in At the Mall portrays a completely different situation. Sternfeld shows the persons portrayed in the setting of a shopping mall. Aware of the photographer and his camera, they show the things which they have just bought. A starting point to which Joel Sternfeld returns in Strangers Passing.
In his First Pictures Joel Sternfeld has succeeded in drawing a multifaceted portrait of American society of the 1970s and, for the first time, he precisely shapes some of his central artistic approaches. It is important to emphasize his pioneering approach of color photography which gained no credence whatsoever at the time. The fact that Joel Sternfeld also (and in particular) dealt with color theory and allowed it to influence his work makes his oeuvre even more important than it was until the current work groups, such as Oxbow Archive, emerged.
Between 2011 and 2013 the First Pictures were presented for the first time in an overview exhibition in the Folkwang Museum in Essen, in the FOAM Photography Museum in Amsterdam, in the Albertina in Vienna and at C|O in Berlin. They are published in book form at Steidl Publishers.