Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore is recognized as a pioneer of colour photography and achieved early recognition for his images. As a child he was given his first darkroom kit, as well as a book of Walker Evans’ work, and began taking photographs; at the age of fourteen he presented his work to the MOMA who bought three works. Shortly after this Shore met Andy Warhol and was greatly influenced by The Factory, taking images of Warhol and his circle here. Shore’s talent was recognized at a young age; as a 24 year old he was the second living photographer to have an exhibition at MOMA. He is best known for his colour images of American scenes of day-to-day life and objects and he travelled extensively across the US and Canada to capture this type of image. His work was recognized and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a colour exhibition at MOMA followed in 1976. As with William Eggleston’s colour work, the resulting book Uncommon Places had an important impact on colour photography being recognized as a legitimate media. Shore is currently the director of the photography department at Bard College and is represented by 303 Gallery in New York, Rodolphe Janssen in Brussels and Sprüth Magers in Berlin and London.