Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore is another photographer that inspires me as I believe his images all encompass the theme of "everyday life" which is relevant to this project. However he also incorporates a certain endearing quality to his photography as he captures his everyday life (food, rooms etc) with muted yet contrasted colours which make the richness of the tones appear much more prominent due to the shadows. I also adore the mise en scene which emulates a feeling of being in the past, i.e the vintage television, grainy texture and eccentric wall hangings. Although the mise en scene won't be similar in my images, I also intend on simulating this exact style which is associated with the past. Moreover, the intention for my project is to also document/photograph the norm in my day to day life, yet apply a certain dynamic, style to the pictures. For example, in one of my images, i will photograph the corner of a room as Stephen Shore's images have a continuous theme of diagonal lines, therefore in my image, I capture the usage of diagonal lines leading to a bookshelf, which will be the focal point in the image.

 This is my favourite picture from Stephen Shore as I believe the notion to photographing food is so simple yet effective in capturing a sense of everyday life. The point of view shot is also places us in the perspective of the photographer which therefore engages the viewer in the image.

Although yellow seems to be a prominent colour in this image, there is an absense of a happy connotation, instead the photograph appears dingy and grim due to the dim lighting. This picture also emits a feeling of elusiveness as Stephen shore photographs a person's foot, yet eliminates any other features of the person in the picture, which adds a sense of mystery on the viewers behalf. It also poses the question of who the person actually is, and why have they been portrayed in such a hidden manner, Is stephen Shore trying to hide something? and Why does he choose to photograph in such a closeted manner?. To reinforce the ambiguity in the picture, the face in the telelvision appears to be of a human being, yet the features of him/her also appear to be unrecognizable. Furthermore, Stephen Shore also captures this image in the corner to higlight the diagonal lines used, as they subtly leads the eye of the viewer to a focal point, and in this picture, the focal point seems to be the shoes.