American Surfaces

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An updated edition of Shore’s groundbreaking book, now with previously unpublished photographs and a new introduction

Stephen Shore’s images from his travels across America in 1972-73 are considered the benchmark for documenting the extraordinary in the ordinary and continue to influence photographers today. The original edition of American Surfaces, published by Phaidon in 2005, brought together 320 photographs sequenced in the order in which they were originally documented. Now, in the age of Instagram and nearly 50 years after Shore embarked on his cross-country journey, this revised and expanded edition will bring this seminal work back into focus.

Stephen Shore is one of the most influential living photographers. His photographs from the 1970s, taken on road trips across America, established him as a pioneer in the use of color in art photography. He is director of the photography program at Bard College, New York.

Teju Cole is a novelist, photographer, critic, curator, and author. He is the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard.

“Numbed by Instagram? Might we suggest a flick through this coffee-table tome as a welcome distraction… His photographs sing of freedom and come with a side serving of a seemingly utopian Americana past – think white picket fences and short stack pancakes. Sometimes all it takes is a picture of a shiny muscle car outside a Texaco gas station.” —The Sunday Times STYLE

“A chronicler of ordinary life in the 70s.”—The Observer New Review

“Shore has now added yet more work to this updated volume… seminal.”—Robb Report

“In Shore’s world, the very act of photographing an object makes that object a point of interest, and within that point of interest lies an inherent beauty.”—Amateur Photographer

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