American Surfaces and the Photobook

In conjunction with the exhibition Stephen Shore, this installation features seminal photobooks of the past century drawn from the collection of the MoMA Library, with an emphasis on the achievements of Shore and other artists who have focused on the American landscape. The works presented range from passionate pleas for social justice and environmental protection to cool, objective, and form-driven perspectives on the landscape. Some books describe life in major cities. Others were born out of long road trips, walks in the countryside, and travels through transitional spaces and borderlands. A broad range of image-making techniques were used to create these works, from the collodion process, invented in the mid-19th century, to Google Street View. As photographers continue to be inspired by Shore and the American landscape, new approaches—and photobooks—are sure to follow.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.