“Here is the challenge for photographers who would picture the true face of America: how to unmask the superficial appearance of the thing, revealing not only what its people have taken such pains to conceal, but also why”
– Andy Grundberg, The Itinerant Vision, 1987
A Blind Man in His Garden, Homer, Alaska, June 1984
Joel Sternfeld’s photographs show us America. As with the Documerica project that sought to show Americans themselves and their land in the 1970s and the earlier work of the Farm Security Administration to do the same, Sternfeld (born June 30, 1944) records what he sees around the country. To cut through the superficial and the confusion of so many shapes, colors and sounds, Sternfeld shows us ordinary things. Humanity presence is there even when people are not. The absurd is to the fore. And what of his own presence in the scene? “You take 35 degrees out of 360 degrees and call it a photo,” he told the Guardian in 2004. “No individual photo explains anything. That’s what makes photography such a wonderful and problematic medium.” In 1978, Sternfeld began to travel around the USA recording the landscape and people. The result was American Prospects series (1979-1983).
McLean, Virginia, December 1978
Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona, 1983
Coeburn, Virginia, April 1981
The Space Shuttle Columbia Lands at Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, March 1979
Wet n’ Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September 1980
Swift River, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, July 1980
After a Tornado, Grande Isle, Nebraska, June 1980
Yellowstone National Park, August 1979
Approximately 17 of 41 Sperm Whales That Beached and Subsequently Died, Florence, Oregon, June 1979
Sauvies Island, Oregon, June 1979
After A Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California 1979
Bear Lake, Utah, July 1979
Exhausted Renegade Elephant, Woodland, Washington, June 1979
Grafton, West Virginia, February 1983
Domestic Workers Waiting for the Bus, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1983
Abandoned Freighter, Homer, Alaska, July 1984
Lake Oswego, Oregon, June 1979
Beverly Hills, California, May 1979
Canyon Country, California, June 1983
Phoenix, Arizona, August 1979
Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, California, May 1979
Lilac Festival, Rochester, New York, 1994
West Virginia, March 1983
Putney Vermont, October 1978
Via: Albertina, Atlas of Places
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
