Photographers in Focus: Stephen Shore

I was photographing at 57th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue a policeman came up to me and said you're a photographer I'm stay like an eight-by-ten and he said I'm a photographer too should I use a four by five so we started talking and we were talking for a while and yes my name they told me said I have one of your books and I show it to my family and they think your pictures are boring and I tell them they don't understand and so that sums up the reaction to to my work for years as some people think it's boring and other people say oh you don't understand [Music] the summer before my ninth birthday I got a 35-millimeter camera very early on I felt like I was a photographer I mean it was my past was was very clear to me reduce your picture yes love you 12 or 13 this helps a good fiction I know I know it was a very good picture I look at the picture a lot because it is a very good picture the point of the picture is in a way is the self-awareness as a photographer what I did instead of going to college was go to the factory and Andy would he would often give me advice like parental advice about oh you shouldn't you shouldn't say that kind of thing if I if I made some crack in a social situation that he thought was inappropriate she would tell me the factory was a real turning point for me because I started thinking aesthetically in a way I hadn't before what happens if you go through life pain heightened attention as you go through your day I felt more awake when I didn't turn my mind off when I was in a taxi or having dinner but was actually paying attention to what I was doing at all kinds of moments during the day I was interested in snapshots I was interested in their immediacy that some while snapshots could have their own conventions often one comes across snapshots that feel like kind of raw experience without any pretense of art American surface citizen huh was a pretty the reaction was fairly negative and got a terrible review in the Village Voice a scathing room I mean I've tried meditating and I find that if I cut myself off follow my thoughts all fine and then the phone rings and it's my mother it's all lost so what happens if I try to maintain that kind of awareness in the midst of life there's so much to be experienced just in average moments today people look at the pictures I read some people writing about they like it because they're nostalgic well what my motel room looked like in 1974 looks nostalgic today but in 1974 it didn't look nostalgic at all and people some people would kind of wonder this just looks like what things look like then I'd say yes that's the idea there are things that are on my mind now that were not on my mind 30 years ago and things that I were I was paying attention to them that I've resolved for myself now understand that this is just the way things work and that you have different things on your mind and they can't stay on your mind the whole time or else you're not moving forward I find I have an affection for what I did in the past even though those are my concerns now [Music]

Channel: NOWNESS

Views: 170,499

Keywords: short film, NOWNESS, Stephen Shore, Photography, Photographers in Focus

Id: S1RJ9tVYS_U

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019