Uncommon Places by Stephen Shore, completely dismantles the idea that you need to have an insanely dynamic scene or a bustling city in order to be creative.

Uncommon Places, the title feels like a play on words. Throughout the pages of this book you'll be presented with a beautifully curated collection of photographs that will immediately feel familiar.

When I first came across this book, I was instantly blown away by the cover. I felt a connection to Stephen’s work, his documentary style of photography has a beautiful fine art viewing experience. Each photograph is extremely clean, void of visual pollution, as if each scene was staged — which is an amazing achievement given his work is largely based on travels.

If you’ve spent anytime traveling throughout America then you’ll recognize the streets, the architecture, the culuture, as well as the people — it’s all neighborly. Each photograph is coupled with a date and location, which does a couple of things…

Affirms the idea that a well rounded body of work can take months or even years to complete.

Validates the idea that art is everywhere a creative mind is, how we see a scene that makes it photogenic.

Somehow, someway Stephen Shore managed to curate a body of work for this book that feels “common”, respectfully, in the best ways possible. The photographs within this book feel cohesive and intentional — that’s an art in itself, especially when we acknowledge the range of time this book spans.

Additionally, the forward of this book gives us context to how this book came to be, and provides us with a climpes into his perspective as a photographer.

I can’t honestly say that I’ve gone through this book in one sitting, part way through the book I get the impulsive urge to go create, to be outside documenting the small things and areas that I casually drive by on the daily basis. Steven Shore’s work 100% challenges the idea that we need to in some dynamic metropolis to create memorable and inspiring work, it reinforces the idea we just need to be present in our surroundings to acknowledge that photogenic moments constantly surround us. Uncommon Places reaffirms my idea that as a documentary photographer I have to continuously participate and engage with my location, not just be a spectator looking for the "moment".

This was also interesting…

Had it not been mentioned that some of these photographs were made with large format cameras, medium format cameras, or on 35mm format cameras we would've never known. The questions that come to mind when I review this photos are…

What was the inspiration?
What did he see that caused him to pause, and say "Okay this is the scene"?
What about the arrangement of the bulbs in the storefront window made him stop?

It's those artistic moments and thoughts that really inspired me to be a creative, and I hope it inspires you. This is a friendly reminder that cameras are tools, people are the artists, the practitioners of a craft.

This book, it's a big book, is a beautiful body of work and it's one that I think demands revisiting frequently. Personally, Uncommon Place is a book that I pick up often, it's one of the very few books that I turn to for immediate inspiration.

If you're interested in this book I encourage you to order it from my favorite bookstore, Kindred Thoughts.

I'd love to hear your perspective if you've seen this book, or if you're familiar with Steven Shore's work, drop your thoughts in the comments below.

Peace!