Joel Sternfeld was a pioneer of artistic colour photography and achieved worldwide fame with his large-format documentary pictures with which the American artist spins a fascinating tale of the USA over many decades. With his virtuoso colour compositions, his pictures stand alongside paintings.
(...) Continue readingJoel Sternfeld – Initially had no desire to become a photographer
Joel Sternfeld was born in New York on 20th June 1944. He studied at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and acquired his Bachelor of Arts in 1965. He arrived at photography almost against his will: a friend put a camera into his hands and encouraged him to take pictures. Sternfeld had previously declared photography to be for ‘idiots’ as everything beautiful in the world was only seen through the lens. However, he also became one of these ’idiots’, and went on to have a considerable influence on the history of art photography in the USA. From 1985, he taught photography at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
The bold step to colour photography
From early on, Joel Sternfeld collected his works into groups for which he did comprehensive research. His perhaps most famous project is also his first: The series American Prospects is considered a pioneering prime example of the masterly use of the cinemascope camera and colour film. With this, Sternfeld belongs to a small select group of photographers around Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, who in the 1970s generally believed colour photography to be completely unsuitable for serious artistic ambitions. For Sternfeld, it was the study of the colour theory of Johannes Itten and Josef Albers that encouraged him to take the step from black and white to colour photography.
An unusual view of normal motifs
Joel Sternfeld shows two different versions of America in his work: The first of his homeland where he had a safe upbringing, and the second of an America which he first discovered on various trips as a grown man. This was an America of bleak landscapes, extreme technology, irritating, and often absurd. Despite these experiences, Sternfeld did not give up his belief in the ideal world of his homeland, but mixed a good portion of sarcasm into his images. The artist does not stage or construct his view of everyday motifs, but waits with great patience for the right moment – as with his almost grotesque shot of a collapsed elephant lying on a country road in Washington. His series of pictures On This Site, for which he photographed scenes of crime and tragedy, became a pictorial memorial, even though the past event is not seen in the photographs.
Much exhibited and honoured
Works by Joel Sternfeld can be viewed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern in London, the Fotomuseum Winterthur and in the Museum Folkwang in Essen. Sternfeld has received prizes and awards for his photographic work, including the Guggenheim Scholarship and the renowned Prix de Rome, and was one of the 2004 winners of the Citigroup Photography Prize.
Joel Sternfeld lives and works in New York.
Joel Sternfeld - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz: