Stranger Passing

Rating:
Summary: redefining "landscape" photography
Review: Joel Sternfeld travels the roads of America, and takes pictures with his large-format camera. Although all his pictures include people in various situations (attending a party, selling coffee, hanging out in their own homes, vacationing, promenading, relaxing, observing, working), what he is really interested in, is the depiction of landscapes and soft outplay of the mid-afternoon light. There is an overwhelming sense of loneliness. His composition style is superb; his depiction of quality of light reflections of the industrial surfaces is without precedence. In my opinion, Sternfeld really stands on its own. Not since Robert Frank's "The Americans" have I seen such a collection. His compositions are best reminiscent of Philip-Lorca diCorcia's; but somehow people are not the center of attention (and sometimes not even of focus), what is important is the quality of landscapes and how they shape human lives.

Rating:
Summary: Photographic short stories
Review: These sixty portraits of American strangers are rich with an intelligent, questioning beauty. I was dazzled by the exhibit in San Francisco, but now I'm especially glad to have the accompanying book. I rarely find it worthwhile to purchase museum exhibit catalogues, but what I love about "Stranger Passing" is that I can ponder a given image as long as I like, "reading and re-reading" it as I would a really good short story. Indeed, many of these portraits seem as laden with interpretive possibilities as a story by Chekhov or Alice Munro or T. C. Boyle. From a grizzled woman selling papers in the middle of a Colorado boulevard, to a solitary New York banker having dinner, his aloneness matched by a single tulip in front of his little bistro table: I found myself deeply moved by the lavish yet subtle artistry Sternfeld has bestowed on these people and places--each one unique yet somehow familiar--that he encountered in this strange and wonderful country of ours.

Rating:
Summary: Photographic short stories
Review: These sixty portraits of American strangers are rich with an intelligent, questioning beauty. I was dazzled by the exhibit in San Francisco, but now I'm especially glad to have the accompanying book. I rarely find it worthwhile to purchase museum exhibit catalogues, but what I love about "Stranger Passing" is that I can ponder a given image as long as I like, "reading and re-reading" it as I would a really good short story. Indeed, many of these portraits seem as laden with interpretive possibilities as a story by Chekhov or Alice Munro or T. C. Boyle. From a grizzled woman selling papers in the middle of a Colorado boulevard, to a solitary New York banker having dinner, his aloneness matched by a single tulip in front of his little bistro table: I found myself deeply moved by the lavish yet subtle artistry Sternfeld has bestowed on these people and places--each one unique yet somehow familiar--that he encountered in this strange and wonderful country of ours.

Rating:
Summary: Americans Revisited
Review: This is the best photographic testament to the USA since Robert Frank came to shore and showed us how strange and beautiful our country was nearly fifty years ago. The subject of these photographs are both ordinary and extraordinary people, who we may cross paths with during any given day. The brilliance of Sternfeld's art is the way these images draw you into the world of each subject. Even the most superficially mundane subject such as two suburban kids standing in a cul-de-sac is cause for reflection. Most of these portraits economically use the scenery to define the world of each individual. In the end, the images are a celebration of anonymous Americans (one can't say "typical" because this collection shows you that there is no such thing as a typical American) in common settings. In my mind, the best images here evoke the mystery and power of a Vermeer painting. The way they heighten our experience of everyday images is what I think they call art.
A side note: If you have the chance, you must see the exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The hyperreal poster-size prints are a wonder to behold. And the cumulative effect of these images leaves one exaltant. (Oh yeah, there's also a pretty good Ansel Adams exhibit curated by John Szarkowski on the floor above.)