Joel Sternfeld (b. 1944)

Tirage chromogénique numérique de 2004. Monté et encadré. Signé sur une étiquette de galerie au feutre noir, fixée au verso du cadre. Ed. 2/10.

Galerie Luhring Augustine, New York

On the Art of Fixing a Shadow. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography, cat. expo. National Gallery of Art Washington/ The Art Institute of Chicago/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989, ill. pl. 373;
Joel Sternfeld, American Prospects, Göttingen, Steidl, 2003, ill. pl. 30.

In excellent condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the tradition of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange in the 1930s and Robert Frank in the 1950s, Joel Sternfeld sets out on a journey across America in 1978 resulting in his landmark series American Prospects.
Probably the most iconic picture from the series, McLean, Virginia, December 1978 shows a house on fire and the fireman in the foreground is busy choosing a pumpkin. The composition of colour within the image establishing a relation between background and foreground, the two levels of the narrative as well as the irony and humour inherent in this piece are a recurrent theme in American Prospects. Drawing a social map of his homeland he manages to uncover extraordinary motifs in ordinary scenes.
Together with Stephen Shore Joel Sternfeld is regarded the most prominent figure in New Colour Photography which in the 1970s brings colour to artistic photography. Experimenting with colour theories Sternfeld establishes colour photography as an art form, even competing with painting: light is used in a masterly manner, his photographs are carefully composed and the colours skillfully coordinated.

This large format 42 x 52 in. print results from Sternfeld's intensive work with new printing techniques in the early 2000s allowing far greater control over detail and focus on a large scale. Following the closure of all precious editions, an edition of 10 large formats for every image of American Prospects was launched.