This idea of imposing an order is very interesting to me. Photography is in essence an analytic medium. โฆ In photography, you start with the whole world and every decision you make imposes an order on it. The question is to what extent itโs an idealized order Iโm imposing or is it an order that grows out of what the world looks like.
Stephen ShoreI don't know how much a photograph can add to a biography, the way a film or writing or narrative medium could. Because it's a frozen image.
Stephen ShoreThe context in which a photograph is seen affects the meaning the viewer draws from it.
Stephen ShoreI'm always interested in finding new aesthetic problems to deal with and challenge myself, even if the aesthetic problem is one of content.
Stephen ShoreIf I only try to solve the problems I set for myself, then I'm limited by what I can conceive of. I can't solve a problem I can't conceive. But if someone else gives me a visual problem, it can be out of the whole realm of my normal practice.
Stephen ShoreThere's something arbitrary about taking a picture. So I can stand at the edge of a highway and take one step forward and it can be a natural landscape untouched by man and I can take one step back and include a guardrail and change the meaning of the picture radically... I can take a picture of a person at one moment and make them look contemplative and photograph them two seconds later and make them look frivolous.
Stephen ShoreThis idea of imposing an order is very interesting to me. Photography is in essence an analytic medium. โฆ In photography, you start with the whole world and every decision you make imposes an order on it. The question is to what extent itโs an idealized order Iโm imposing or is it an order that grows out of what the world looks like.
Stephen Shore