*STEPHEN SHORE*
*Sedan, Montana, July 25, 2020*
*45059.55433N. 110°46.291801W*
*2020*
*UV-curable ink on Dibond aluminum*
*251/4 × 33 1/4 inches (64.1 x84.5 cm)*
*Framed*
*Edition of 3, with 2AP*
*SS 3309*

Written By Trip Avis

The farther we get from our immediate surroundings, the more perspective we gain. What was fuzzy and overwhelming up close fades with distance, reminding us that the situation is not as all-consuming as it may have felt initially. This fluctuation in perspective is as true of life as of photography. In his series Topographies, Stephen Shore utilizes drone technology to lift the viewer away from the Earth and observe it with a sobered, dazzling lucidity. Patches of tall grass give way to sweeping verdant fields over which white clouds undulate. Drab, busy intersections reveal their geometric uniformity. Shore deftly captures a unity between nature’s perfect creation and human-honed precision — perhaps the two defining factors of our planet.

*STEPHEN SHORE*
*Three Forks, Montana, September 1, 2020*
*45°56.977861N, 111°36.454105W*
*2020*
*UV-curable ink on Dibond aluminum*
*25 1/4 x 33 1/4 inches (64.1 x 84.5 cm)*
*Framed*
*Edition of 3, with 2AP*
*SS 3558*

On display at New York’s 303 Gallery between May 29 and July 3, 2024, Shore’s Topographies show that when these forces work in unison, the harmony of humans and nature is effortless and inspiring. The project has an element of discovery; Shore offers his viewers the chance to map out each photograph by providing their longitude and latitude coordinates. While many of the landscapes seem nondescript, the disclosure of the exact geographic locations gives the photos a sense of specificity and heightens our engagement with the art. In some ways, it recalls the GPS-centric pastime of geocaching.

STEPHEN SHORE
Four Corners, Montana, August 2, 2020
45°40.185653N, 111°11.104876W
2020
UV-curable ink on Dibond aluminum
251/4 × 33 1/4 inches (64.1 x 84.5 cm)
Framed
Edition of 3, with 2AP
SS 3319

Topographies flaunts the picturesque characteristics of the American West: its rolling hills and brush-strewn prairies, often devoid of humankind’s heavy, revealing hand. In Sedan, Montana, July 25, 2020, 45°59.55433N, 110°46.291801W, Shore depicts the frontier’s spacious majesty. The landscape has a wide variety: in the image’s foreground, the grass is a lush emerald. A small stream snakes its way through the high grass, framed by beds of wildflowers and round cotton ball bushes. As the road that bisects the image shrinks into the distance, this lush patch of Eden gives way to a drier, pale green of a fenced pasture and a scrub-mottled field. The sky above has its own color gradient: the turquoise blue fades to a pale robin’s egg that rests gently on the gradual, sloping mountain peaks.

Another quiet moment in rural Montana, captured in Shore’s Meagher County, Montana, July 26, 2020, 46°11.409946N, 110°44.018901W, shows the delicate mark of humanity upon the bare-horizoned West. A small white house emerges from the dry, grassy prairie lands like a turnip cresting the garden soil. Aside from a small white shed nearby — like a matryoshka doll of the farmhouse — it is the lone human structure on this widespread, unblemished land. Though the house appears to be abandoned — the windows gape like dark, blind eyes — one cannot help imagining the lives of the people who occupied this homestead. Did they bask in this solace and freedom from the rest of the world, or did it creep up on them, an undercurrent of dread on long winter nights? Shore’s drone allows us as viewers to take in a bird’s-eye perspective, something typically restricted to plane rides. The landscape and structures recall a miniature train set, each piece delicately placed upon the board like model railroad buildings.

Jun 24 Stephen Shore : Topographies | 303 Gallery

Jun 25 Dora Maar: Behind the Lens | Amar Gallery

Jun 24 Nsenga Knight: Close to Home | Queens Museum

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