A Shore Thing

Stephen Shore, "Church and Second Streets, Easton, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1974," 1974.

Stephen Shore created the Instagram aesthetic. His intimate, tight photographs of cityscapes, landscapes and people have inspired the too-precise feeds of countless amateurs — consciously or accidentally. Like his acolytes, Shore now receives considerable attention for embracing the platform himself, which his sharpest critics consider the tarnishing of his legacy.

Yet Shore is doing what he has always done best — using accessible technology to create and disseminate an image as quickly as possible. Had MoMA’s good — yet disjointed — retrospective of his work enlarged his Instagram photos for public view (rather than rely on iPads displaying his feed), the show would have made a statement about how professionalism in photography has changed. Shore is one of a legion of photographers who believe the best camera you can shoot with is the one you carry with you, the one you’re most likely to use. For many of us, it’s our smartphone.

Sure, Shore’s Instagram appears ordinary and devoid of filters. That’s refreshing, however, in a day and age where people use VSCO presets (I’m guilty of this) to achieve Shore’s unedited aesthetic. Since the early 1970s, Shore’s knack for precision and finding good daylight have allowed him to largely eschew post-production whether using a camera or a smartphone.

Stephen Shore, "Palm Beach, Florida, November 8, 1977," 1977.

Shore’s 1970s shots are the highlight of the MoMA show. His 1972-73 photo series American Surfaces is the beginning of his decade-long obsession with shooting scenes and people from American cities and small towns. Shot on a Rollei 35mm camera, these are Shore’s earliest color photographs. Their punchy, almost aggressive, tones signaled the start of color photography as a serious art form. From sharp building edges to diner meals (Shore unknowingly invented food porn as well, with his diagonal, downward photographs documenting what he ate), to half-clothed women and dirty toilets, Shore captured everyday American life with empathy and curiosity. There’s no voyeurism or otherism in his photographs, just a bare, honest representation of what he sees.

American Surfaces grew into Uncommon Places. From 1973-82, Shore traveled across the country (and occasionally to Canada) shooting cityscapes in out-of-the-way and neglected areas. While he still photographed plenty of people during this nine-year period, he focused on series of shots that depicted America’s changing landscape. Depressed industrial communities, hollowed-out urban neighborhoods and offbeat small towns share space in this series, filled with representations of a bygone time that are simultaneously grave and beautiful enough for display in a personal collection.

Stephen Shore, "4-Part Variation, July 1969," 1969.

While these two projects from the 1970s feel connected, MoMA’s awkward and tight layout causes the remainder of the exhibit to feel disjointed. Shore’s side projects (his commercial work comes to mind) almost seem like asides, and the gallery dedicated to the photographs Shore deemed essential to the medium’s canon have no place in the retrospective. As good as they are, most are not Shore originals and were culled for a class he taught at Bard College, where he’s directed the photography program since 1982. While they're relevant in that context, their inclusion seems odd when every other photo is shot by Shore.

There’s enough from Shore’s entire career here, however, to keep serious fans content and casual fans happy. Beginning with shots from his youth on the streets of New York and at Andy Warhol’s Factory, it’s fitting that Shore is now an Instagram photographer — in the best sense of the phrase —  since he uses the medium to capture ephemeral moments like those he started with. The retrospective connects different phases of Shore’s career in that sense (other omissions notwithstanding), and captures his ability to adopt the next big thing in photography before his peers. From his willingness to embrace social media to his commercial commissions that rarely bear his name, his work remains one step ahead of the crowd.