Topographies: Aerial Surveys of the American Landscape
Stephen Shore
MACK
Topographies: Aerial Surveys of the American Landscape presents the latest body of work from Stephen Shore: a series of photographs shot by drone from 2020 onwards, which reveal in arresting detail the interplay of natural and man-made landscapes in Montana, North Carolina, New York, and beyond.
In this new body of work, Shore revisits the original ambitions of the renowned 1975 exhibition ‘New Topographics’, using a new aerial viewpoint to consider afresh the concerns of the movement – the objective, the commonplace, and the relationship of the natural and man-made in the American landscape – reflecting on how these might be applied in the twenty-first century.
As much as exploring the formal possibilities of the aerial photograph, Topographies displays a glorious dedication to detail and surprise, in which the slightest bend of a river or turn of a shadow uncovers the textures and colours of America’s urban and suburban landscapes, all investigated with Shore’s signature rigour.
With essays by Noah Chasin and Richard B. Woodward
Embossed linen hardcover with tipped-in image
30.5 x 25.2 cm, 208 pages
ISBN 978-1-913620-89-9
January 2023
€75 £65 $85
The signed edition includes a slip signed by the artist and glued into the inside back cover.
‘For five decades, Stephen Shore has remade our vision of the country, largely by remaking his own.’ The New Yorker
‘The possibilities of mass surveillance imbue drone technology with sinister connotations. But in his Topographies series, American photographer Stephen Shore subtly inverts these fears through a sensitive examination of the everyday.’ The Financial Times
‘During the long periods of pandemic isolation, Stephen Shore rose to the challenge – and shot the arresting US landscape from way up above’. The Guardian
‘Shore made a fundamental contribution to the construction of the visual culture of the last century, challenging his audience to look at the everyday world with different eyes, and able to participate in defining the canons of contemporary photography.’ Vogue Italia
‘… these photographs are snapshots of a dynamic landscape, which hold within them an archive of the politics and world events of the moment they were captured.’ Frieze
‘Shore manages to capture isolated and poignant moments amid the incomprehensible vectors of exchange in which we daily are enmeshed.’ The Architect’s Newspaper
‘Stephen Shore’s drop with a view delivers a different side of America.’ The Art Newspaper
‘What these drone-assisted photographs do propose — and here is where their true value lies — is that paying attention to what’s there is a necessary first step towards comprehending it.’ Places Journal
‘Part formalistic, part voyeuristic, these images of dirt roads, warehouses, cemeteries, and tract homes—identified merely by their longitude and latitude—reveal the beauty in the form and function of flyover country.’ New Criterion
‘A collection of works filled with the beauty of detail and unexpectedness that purse the possibilities of aerial photography.’ Lula Japan
‘A fresh photographic view of the USA’s vast and varied idiosyncrasies.’ Wallpaper*
‘The pioneering photographer’s aerial images depict the coming together of nature and humankind.’ Creative Review
'Topographies demonstrates a great sense of detail and surprise, in which the slightest bend in a river or the slightest shadow reveals the textures and colors of America's urban and suburban landscapes, all studied with Shore’s characteristic rigor.’ Glltn
‘Shore has returned to photographing what he knows best … with this work Shore offers images that with any other camera would have been impossible to achieve.’ Internazionale
‘From the sky, he immortalises an artificial territory that has prevailed over the natural.’ Liberation
‘His images, taken by drone, strive to freeze the meeting point between nature and the city.’ Les Echoes
‘The aerial photography explored by Shore, which could appear as a "push on the accelerator" of the digital revolution, gives us images that, if on the one hand show a profound dedication to detail, on the other offer us views that are "compositions" of shapes and colors of surprising and captivating territories.’ Bengala
‘In Topographies, Shore wants to explore the possibilities of aerial photography … to depict changing urban or suburban realities, with an almost neutral style of topographical documentation.’ il Post
Interview with Stephen Shore in WELTKUNST
Interview with Stephen Shore in Aesthetica
Free local shipping on orders over $70
Express shipping available
Return within 14 working days for a refund
Have a question? Call us on +44 (0) 20 7442 2190 or email us at support@mackbooks.co.uk