A Road Trip Journal, 2009

On 3rd July 1973 Stephen Shore (b.1947) set out on a road trip. The journey marked an important turning point in his career, as he was coming to the tail end of American Surfaces and embarking on what came to be known as Uncommon Places.

In the month-long journal that Shore kept on his trip, he itemized, in a deadpan, unemotional style, everywhere he stayed, what he ate, what television programmes he watched and how many miles he drove; he also included postcards of the towns that he stayed in, glued in alongside hotel, restaurant and gas-station receipts and a listing of every photograph he took on the way.As he travelled, he photographed the towns and cities he drove through, the people he met, the food he ate, the beds he slept in, from New York to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, from San Francisco to Holbrook, Arizona and onwards.

By the 13th July he had arrived in South Dakota. On the 14th he had cereal for breakfast, steak for lunch and a blt for dinner. He stayed in the El Centro Motel in Kadoka and watched the Mary Tyler Moore show. During the day he made eight exposures. One of them was of this apparently unexceptional yellow cabin with a telegraph pole, a bush and car parked neatly beside it.

Stephen Shore is a master of making us think about the ordinary in an extraordinary way.This special, highly collectible, limited edition book – numbered and signed by the photographer – is a complete reproduction of the journal that Shore made on a month-long American road trip in 1973, during which he began work on his influential project Uncommon Places.

In the journal Shore included his own photographs, lists detailing information on his travels like where he stayed, what he ate, how many miles he drove, and various ephemera like receipts and postcards. Each page of the journal is reproduced along with a plate section featuring every photograph he took on his journey to provide the complete story of the journey at this seminal moment in his career. The book also includes a set of postcards, reproductions of cards that Shore himself made and distributed on his journey, to ensure this is an essential title for any collector, photography enthusiast, or student.

At the age of 17, Stephen Shore (b.1947) was a regular at Andy Warhol's Factory. By the age of 23, he became the first living photographer to have a one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. An unrivalled pioneer in his field, his work has been exhibited in numerous museums worldwide and influenced generations of photographers. In 1982 he was appointed Director of the Photography Program at Bard College, New York where he is now the Susan Weber Soros Professor in the Arts.

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All prints are hinged to a conservation quality, acid-free and lignin-free Alpha Cellulose matboard, using an acid-free linen tape. The mat's surface paper is fade and bleed resistant and is attached to a conservation quality foam-core mounting board that will keep the work safe from deterioration over time. Artworks with a deckled or decorative edges will be floated on the matboard, with acrylic spacers to separate the art from the glazing. All mounting is fully reversible, without any potential damage to the art.

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• 1 1/4” wide, 3/4” deep, with a 2 1/2” wide mat.
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This work is eligible for return within 30 days of receipt of delivery.

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