Stephan Shore, Uncommon Places

Stephan Shore is best known for capturing mundane everyday life but the importance of his work is simply this, that he captures the everyday. His book, Uncommon Places that was originally published in 1972, was one of the first to take advantage of colour photography as new form of documentary photography.

What is also interesting is that over time these photographs have built up a heighten sense of a importance because they are images of buildings people etc that are only there for a small period of time and are often overlooked. This is something that I want to focus on in my work. The houses and buildings in the area in which I am looking at are ones that were built for purpose in the 70s unlike the ornate houses that the Victorians built 80 or so years prior.

Personally i think the important of this work and my own is that it is a snapshot in time. The everyday is always changing and it often goes unnoticed. Especially with works like this time gives it more and more importance. You can look back at a 20 year old photo of a place that you know well and go 'wow, its changed'. Even in the short period that has been my life in my hometown (almost 19 years) i can already see change and want to document its ever changing state. I can also see this being a bit of a personal project throughout my life and documenting when i can my hometown over a period of years.

#fmp