Christopher Moss

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Joel Sternfeld - "American Prospects" Review

"It is an unspeakable force, lurking invisibly, powerful, cultural, American.....It is about a country convinced of its independence and freedom, but that when photographed appears chained to a set of principles and dreams powerfully manifested in its architecture and in the lives its people have chosen to lead."

"The subjects of these pictures are varied but the hand of the photographer persists throughout, providing a consistent perspective so that the book never once feels haphazard. That perspective manages to document the weird mixture of tragic boredom, achievement and hope that composes the contemporary American experience. The pictures are shot with a sort of attached indifference, meaning that the subjects, composition, and lighting are all carefully chosen, but a documentary quality establishes distance between viewer and subject. This space allows a feeling of wrongness to come through, one that seems to permeate these photographs, not by direct instigation but through an implicit voyeurism. The wrongness is as apparent as its source is difficult to identify, so that looking at these pictures is similar to watching a David Lynch film."

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2012/12/review-joel-sternfeld-american-prospects-2012.html

Review by Sergio Leone