“For me, photography is very important in that it exists because of everything else”
– Wayne Sorce, 1973
Dave’s Restaurant, New York 1984
Chicago-born photographer Wayne Sorce (1946 – 2015) left behind and enviable body of work. In 2017, the Joseph Bellows Gallery in California marked his career in Urban Colour, an exhibition of his big color photographs taken of New York City in the mid-1980s. For an era often depicted in shades of brown and gritty grey, like a bee attracted to flowers, Sorce spotted color and made it glow. Who knew mid-1980s NYC at once so worn and warming at once.
Big, bouncy gas-guzzling cars look hearty and rich. Reddish brickwork basks in the sunlight. Even the sign bending to left s if to catch the driver’s eye one last time and he disobeys the order ‘No Left Turn’, appears defined and strong.
Wayne Sorce, L.B. Oil, New York, 1984, courtesy of Joseph Bellows Gallery
1986 Blankets, New York.
1984 Chock Full o’ Nuts, New York.
Wayne Sorce
Vinegar Hill, New York
1985
1985 Barbers, New York.
Wayne Sorce, Varick Street, New York, 1984, courtesy of Joseph Bellows Gallery
Wayne Sorce- Vinegar Hill, New York 1985
Wayne Sorce- No Left Vinegar Hill, New York 1988
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