| dc.description.abstract | This thesis focuses on the American road photography. The title “The American way” implies both American highway and the typical American culture and aesthetic. It also suggests a unique genre of Americanism in the history of photography. My arguments are as follows. First, the road photography should be considered as a genre, and it can provide a way of viewing and perception. Second, the study of this genre also offers implications and clues to interpret Stephen Shore’s road photographs in his American Surfaces and Uncommon Places and the contextualization constructing in Shore’s own artistic career and the history of road photography.
The first chapter examines the tradition of the road photography, including both Dorothea Lange’s (1895-1965) American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion (1939) in the 1930s and Robert Frank’s (1924- ) Les Américains (1958) / The Americans (1959) in the 1950s postwar period. By retracing the work from two different decades, the study offers the contexts of the development of the road photography and guides us to analyze Shore’s works. In the second chapter, we will discuss Shore’s artistic experiences in the 1960s, the Highway: An Exhibition in 1970 and Shore’s later American Surfaces. Shore’s American Surfaces infers a follow-up of the Pop art. It reveals spontaneity and intentionally resembles the amateurish snapshots. However, Shore’s photographic approach and concern, which have partially changed from American Surfaces to Uncommon Places, composes a different way of viewing. Besides, the popular images upon the road also inspire road photographers. Through Uncommon Places, Shore maintained the tradition established by his predecessors. He also explored the frontiers and embodied the authentic situation on the road. In the last chapter, I will argue the demonstration of the vernacular landscape in 1970s presented by Shore and his contemporaries. It includes Robert Adams (1937- ) and the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape (1975) which contains both Robert Adams’s and Shore’s works. In addition, it is William Eggleston (1939- ) that brought color into the art photography together with Shore at the same time. Furthermore, Joel Sternfeld’s (1944- ) American Prospects (1987) is completed by similar road trips and the large format camera with Shore. By comparing the interrelation of these photographers do help us not only reconstruct the atmosphere of that time, but also clarify Shore’s key position in the history of photography.
Road photography is complex due to various aspects of history, culture and society of the United States. It is still an ongoing art which displays observations and experiences related to the highway. Shore’s road photographs manifest the zeitgeist, and also demonstrate the tradition on the road and the visual vocabularies that continue to develop. | en_US |