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Joel Sternfeld (born June 30, 1944) is an American fine-art color
photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...
. He is noted for his large-format documentary pictures of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and helping establish color photography as a respected artistic medium. Sternfeld's work is held in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
in New York.


Life and work

Sternfeld earned a BA from
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
and teaches photography at
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sarah Lawrence scholarship, particularly in ...
in New York. He began taking color photographs in 1970 after learning the color theory of
Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feininge ...
and
Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...
. Color is an important element of his photographs. ''American Prospects'' (1987) is Sternfeld's most known book and explores the irony of human-altered landscapes in the United States. He began it in 1978, when color photography was still in its infancy as an art medium. Using a large-format camera, his photographs harken back to the traditions of 19th century photography, yet are applied to everyday scenes, like a Wet n' Wild waterpark, or a suburban street in the South. He captured America losing its way from the
Carter Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to: Geography United States * Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Carter, Montana, a census-designated place * Car ...
through the Reagan era, the faltering "prospects" (both views and opportunities) of the time. ''On This Site: Landscape in Memoriam'' (1997), is about violence in America. Sternfeld photographed sites of recent tragedies. Next to each photograph is text about the events that happened at that location. From 1991 to 1994 Sternfeld worked with Melinda Hunt to document New York City's public cemetery on Hart Island, resulting in the book "Hart Island" (1998). Sternfeld has also published books about social class and stereotypes in America (''Stranger Passing'' (2001)), an abandoned elevated railway in New York (''Walking the High Line'' (2002)), and ''Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America'' (2006). ''When It Changed'' (2007) contains close-up portraits of delegates debating global warming at the 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.


Exhibitions

* 1977:
Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d’Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historia ...
, Arles, France. * 2011: ''Joel Sternfeld – Farbfotografien seit 1970'',
Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...
, Essen, Germany. * 2011–2012: ''Joel Sternfeld – Color Photographs since 1970'',
Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam or Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is a photography museum located at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The museum has four different exhibitions at any given time in which different photographic genres are shown, such as documen ...
, Netherlands. * 2012: ''Joel Sternfeld – Farbfotografien seit 1970'',
Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...
, Wien, Austria.


Awards

*1978–1982:
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
. *1985: Higashikawa Prize, Japan. *1980:
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
Fellowship. *1990–91:
Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
. *2004: Citigroup Photography Prize, in association with The Photographers' Gallery, London. *2013: Montgomery Fellowship, Dartmouth College. *2017: Honorary Fellowship of the
Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
, Bath, UK.


Publications

*''Campagna Romana: The Countryside of Ancient Rome.'' New York, NY:
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers i ...
, 1992. . *''Hart Island.'' Zurich, Berlin, New York: Scalo, 1998. . Includes a text by Melinda Hunt. *''Treading on Kings.'' Göttingen:
Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerhar ...
, 2003. . *''When It Changed.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. . *''Sweet Earth-Experimental Utopias in America.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. . *''Oxbow Archive.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. . *''iDubai.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. . *''First Pictures.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2011. . *''Walking the High Line.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. . *''On This Site: Landscape in Memorian.'' Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. . *''Stranger Passing''. Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. . *''American Prospects.'' New York, NY:
Distributed Art Publishers D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. is an American company that distributes and publishes books on art, photography, design, and visual culture.Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerhar ...
, 2019. .


Collections

Sternfeld's work is held in the following public collection: *
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
, New York: 61 works (as of June 2019)


References


External links


Joel Sternfeld's website





''Forbes'' article on Sternfeld's best-known photographs

"The High Line" photographs by Sternfeld published in ''Cabinet Magazine''

Story behind 'Canyon Country, California, June 1983'

'Yochelson, Bonnie “The United Nations of Queens.” The New York Times.'

'Lipton, Shana Ting “Joel Sternfeld on His Classic American Prospects - and His New Work” British Journal of Photography.'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sternfeld, Joel 1944 births Living people Sarah Lawrence College faculty Dartmouth College alumni Photographers from New York City Fine art photographers 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers