About
Joel Sternfeld was born on June 30th in 1944 and is an American fine-art photographer. He is best known for his large-format colour pictures of contemporary American life and identity. His work contributed to the establishment of colour photography as a respected artistic medium. He earned a BA from Dartmouth College and began taking colour photographs in 1970 after learning the colour theory of Johannes Itten and Josef Albers. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, where he holds the Noble Foundation Chair in Art and Cultural History.
Sternfeld documents people and places with unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness, and hope. Ever since the 1987 publication of his landmark “American Prospects,” Sternfeld’s work has interwoven the conceptual and political, while being steeped in history, landscape theory and his passion for the passage of the seasons.
Book reference
Sternfeld’s book ‘on this site’ was originally published in 2012 and is a collection of photographs that showcase tragedies that have taken place within America as well as short descriptions to inform the viewer of what had once happened. They show the current day locations of incidents, such as the location of Martin Luther kings assassination or the Cuyahoga River which was set on fire after having chemicals dumped into it.
All of these images are used to raise awareness and help to ensure that we do not repeat the same mistakes that lead to such disasters happening as well as helping us to remember the events so that we do not forget the tragedies that occurred.
Why I chose him
I chose Sternfeld as one of my artists references as his work focuses on memory. I plan to also focus my personal study on memory, so taking some inspiration on how he presents the theme in his book may prove useful when creating mine.
I really like how Sternfeld has a small paragraph of information besides the image as it help’s the reader to understand what it exactly it is they are looking at, since many people may not be aware of the tragedy they are looking at.
Image analysis
This image is taken of the stone wall inn, where the patrons of the gay bar were arrested and beaten which caused the village to rebel, creating what is now known as the stonewall rebellion. This photo denotes that there was a change, due to the neon sign in the window which links to a more modern design.
In the photo we are able to see a lot of red ambient lighting, which is often use to either represent danger, warmth or love. In this case, we are able to see that it represents love due to the heart bouquet in the window. Another thing we are able to tell from the image, is that the bar is still up and running due to the more modern appearance it has taken. This tells us that even with the tragedy that occurred here, the bar has survived the attack and is currently thriving.
