From Shore to Gursky, Part II

NEW YORK—Last week, we looked at the color photography of Stephen Shore and Andreas Gursky and identified the deadpan, quasi-objective style that unites their oeuvres. But we also noted significant differences between their work, contrasting Shore’s idiosyncratic and frequently personal expression with Gursky’s aesthetic, which is both more withdrawn and more dramatic.

This week we'll examine how the two styles relate to each other—how Shore’s vision, born in the late 1960s and early ’70s, evolved into Gursky’s, which is so dominant today.

How do you get from Shore to Gursky? The answer, it turns out, is that you must deviate from the straight trajectory of deadpan photography. You have to go by way of another trend in the medium's recent history, what you might call its theatrical, or dramatic impulse. 

Theatrical photography, and its tug and pull with the deadpan, is the subject of the following survey of work by several other photographers who are currently showing (or were until recently) in New York.  

Click on the photo gallery to the left to continue reading "From Shore to Gursky, Part II"