Every now and then I'm revisiting some of the photography books and other items on my shelves here. This time it’s . . .
It’s not easy to write about a series that’s as well known as American Prospects. Joel Sternfeld established himself as one of the major photographers of his time after its publication in 1987, taking a detached and questioning look at American landscape and society through a series of extraordinary images. Since then the book has been republished 6 times, each time with a few images added and others taken away. Accompanying essays have also come and gone. My copy is the latest, 6th edition, published in 2023 by Steidl, edited by Sternfeld, this time containing only the original essay by Andy Grundberg.
Working in colour with a large-format camera, Sternfeld might be compared with Stephen Shore or Richard Misrach that were photographing the American landscape in colour around the same period. One could easily draw a line back to Walker Evans or Wright Morris who both shared an interest in the American vernacular landscape. Moving forward to today you might recognise Sternfeld’s influence on Alec Soth, Mark Power and Joshua Dudley Greer who’s series, Somewhere Along the Line shares an incredible similarity with American Prospects.
Funded with the help of a Guggenheim Fellowship grant, American Prospects was shot over an 8-year period with Sternfeld criss-crossing the United States in a camper van, exposing just a couple of images each day and sometimes going for months without seeing the actual results.
I’ve read a lot about this book over the years and although many of the images were familiar to me before buying it, it was lovely to have a copy in my hands and to get a feel for the narrative it constructs as you turn the pages, especially over the opening sequence of eight or ten images. The use of the word ‘prospects’ in the title is a clever one, playing with its various meanings; (i) an expansive landscape, (ii) opportunities for wealth, (iii) the likelihood of future events, (iv) the potential for mining and mineral extraction. These are all themes that come out through the book and that tie in perfectly with an established American mythology of opportunity and pioneering spirit: the civilisation of a vast and hostile landscape. Indeed the landscape and/or natural elements are present in all the photographs, as are signs of human presence. Nature and civilisation are constantly contrasted and juxtaposed in Sternfeld’s images, sometimes subtly, sometimes ironically, often suggesting a certain superficiality and impermanence to our occupation of the landscape. It doesn’t seem to me an overtly negative or critical point of view but it’s often uncomfortable and somewhat dystopian, raising questions and stopping you for long enough to think about things a little more.. which is what good art should do.
As Andy Grundberg said in his essay that accompanies the book, “..Sternfeld manages to eke a measure of harmony out of an assortment of follies”. Indeed the photographs are beautifully constructed both in terms of composition and colour. Look closely and you’ll see how well controlled Sternfeld’s palette is. There is a predominance of earthy tones but also spots of colour that subtly play off each other. I don’t often think about these things but his work is extraordinary in this sense. In his composition he takes a step back to include the landscape as much as possible, placing human activity within a wider, geographical context and emphasising the scale (and sometimes the futility) of our endeavours.
It’s a beautiful, clever, disturbing book, sometimes difficult to define in terms of any singular meaning or the combined effect of the images. There is much suggested, and to quote Walt Whitman, “I believe that much unseen is also here”.
Joel Sternfeld, American Prospects, Published by Steidl, 1987 - 2023.
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