INDEX and More than thirty years later these photos still inspire

The 1987 edition is a lot smaller than the new Steidl  book.

 

An excellent and timely reprint of the revised edition of Sternfeld's remarkable photobook originally published in 1987 (and frequently excessively priced on the net). I think this Steidl edition is the one to get if you want to appreciate his work. The book is presented in the classic photobook format with an image on each right-hand page and facing a blank one opposite except for a caption. The photos at 34 by 27 centimeters are much bigger than in the original book (24.5 by 20) and printed on a whiter paper than the more creamy white in the '87 copy, both books use a 175 screen. Though perhaps a very minor point the photos include a bit more on each side and I assume that what I'm looking at on the page is the complete frame. Finally, the revised edition includes sixteen more photos than the original fifty-five.

'American Prospects' joins several books that defined American commonplace over the last few decades. Titles like: 'American Photos' by Evans; 'The Americans' by Frank; 'The American Monument' by Friedlander; 'Suburbia' by Owens; 'William Egglestone's Guide'; 'Uncommon Places' by Shore. These photographers captured the landscape in their own unique way and Sternfeld seemed to specialize in being at the right place at the right time, for example, the exhausted elephant on a local road or the fireman buying pumpkins at a farmers market while a house burns nearby. Also the large moored battleship and a few yards away a lone fisherman sitting on the shore or a house more or less demolished in a tornado but still standing with a fridge with its door open and showing how well stocked it was, the backs of tourists looking over the parapet of a dam and behind them a mobile playpen on the highway with a baby looking at the camera.

Because of their large size, Sternfeld's seventy-one photos in the book stimulate repeat viewing which never disappoints.