A. Siber on Stephen Shore

By browsing through Stephen Shore's work I noticed that most of his images are landscapes. Usually places looking quite familiar, but this photograph just struck out to me as being really refreshing. The billboards I am used to seeing are constantly in my way of the beauty of the nature. Where as this one adds to the landscape in a harmonious and even humorous way.
The billboard is perfectly centered in the image, while the clouds seem to radiate from it. Even the fence starts to read as if it is being pulled to the vanishing point in the center. The colors of the two blue skys are almost unreal how they match. I have one last question that persists: Did Shore block out the letters of the commercial in Photo Shop? If so did he choose the colors to do it with? I wish I had seen it in real life.

Like I mentioned above, Shore appears to do more landscapes, but among them there are also some portraits, witch I prefer. The people here seem relaxed in their own home. I love the way he included some of the surrounding furniture giving it a bigger scenery. Wen I shoot, I tend to isolate my figures from their surroundings by cropping them tightly. This is giving me a new way to look. Instead of the static straight on shot he angled the camera and made it more dynamic, which adds to the mood of the subject. He also used a limited range of colors that is very affective for giving an image a unified look. Most of the colors are warm except for the pillow of the main subject. By this contrast of color it adds to direct the viewers attention. It's also funny how with help of the color and shape, my eye keeps comparing the woman's butt to the chair.

Personally, I have to admit, I am not impressed with most of his landscapes. This one here is my least favorite. It looks like the view of a person that is about to cross the road. Or as if all his focus is directed to a point where something or someone might have stood at some point in time, but is not there anymore. That point to me would fall rite in front of the small car. There is so much empty street and dull colors. The most interesting part of the image to me is the blue shape of the sky and the jagged edge of it against the roof tops. But that alone does not win me over. The most respect here goes to the architect of the building on the left.