Everyday Life
This month’s books take us into the street and everyday life, where photography becomes a way of paying attention. Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, Vivian Maier, and Alec Soth each find something compelling in the ordinary: people, places, light, color, architecture, and the unexpected moments in between. Together, they explore a simple idea: What happens when we really look at the world around us? The street is already full of stories, compositions, and creative details. Sometimes we just have to slow down enough to see them.
The Americans
by Robert Frank
Aperture, 1968
A landmark in photography, The Americans looks across postwar America with an eye that is observational rather than celebratory. Frank finds beauty, contradiction, isolation, humor, and unease in ordinary people and places. The photographs feel spontaneous, but the collection as a whole has a very deliberate point of view.
Uncommon Places
by Stephen Shore
Aperture, 1982
Shore makes the familiar feel strange. Gas stations, parking lots, motels, streets, buildings, and roadside landscapes become worthy of careful consideration. His photographs are a reminder that a place doesn’t have to be spectacular to be interesting. Sometimes you just have to frame it differently.
A Photographer Found
by Vivian Maier
Harper, 2014
Maier may be the most literal example of the joy of looking. She photographed constantly while working as a nanny, quietly documenting people, streets, architecture, reflections, and fleeting moments. Her story adds another layer to the work: for decades, she was essentially making art for herself, without an audience waiting on the other side.
Gathered Leaves
by Alec Soth
MACK, 2015
Soth’s work expands the idea of the photographic journey. Gathered Leaves brings together several bodies of work and, in doing so, gives us a look not just at individual photographs but at how a photographer builds meaning through sequences, projects, and recurring ideas. It’s a little like looking at the artist’s sketchbook rather than just the finished pieces.
You spin me right round baby right round.
Solid acacia wood tables. Heavy yet light, mobile yet stationary. Perfect perch for laptops, cocktails, art books, flowers, feet and of course bowls of Cheetos.
