American Prospects: Beautiful Color Pictures of Life in America in the 1970s and 1980s

   
Joel Sternfeld was born in New York City in 1944, and earned a BA in Art from Dartmouth College. Sternfeld began taking photographs in 1970 having studied the colour theory of artists Johannes Itten and Josef Albers. Early work included street photography on small and medium format cameras. 
 
In 1978, Sternfeld embarked on a road-trip which traversed the United States. Using an 8 x 10 inch camera, Sternfeld photographed the communities, culture, landscapes and quotidian life he encountered along the way.
 
Kansas City, Kansas, May 1983

American Prospects is seen as a continuation of the American documentary tradition established in the 1930s by Walker Evans and continued by Robert Frank twenty years later. Sternfeld expanded the trajectory of the medium by photographing scenes rich in implied narrative, which were also distinct in their colour and composition. Laced with a touch of irony, his photographs from the project explore American identity in a thought-provoking yet humorous manner. 
 
His masterful use of colour heightens the tensions in these comic depictions of everyday life in America. First exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and then published in book form in 1987, American Prospects is regarded as one of the most influential bodies of photographic work from this period. Sternfeld’s later work has continued to experiment with colour and put it to use in documenting everyday events and the people he encounters. 

 
McLean, Virginia, December 1978

 

 
The Space Shuttle Columbia Lands at Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, March 1979

 

 
Beverly Hills, California, May 1979

 

 
Beverly Hills, California, May 1979

 

 
Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica, California, May 1979

 

 
Approximately 17 of 41 Sperm Whales That Beached and Subsequently Died, Florence, Oregon, June 1979

 

Lake Oswego, Oregon, June 1979

 

Sauvies Island, Oregon, June 1979

 

 
Exhausted Renegade Elephant, Woodland, Washington, June 1979

 

 
Bear Lake, Utah, July 1979

 

Phoenix, Arizona, August 1979

 

Yellowstone National Park, August 1979

 

Park City, Utah, August 1979

 

After A Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California, 1979

 

After a Tornado, Grande Isle, Nebraska, June 1980

 

Swift River, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire, July 1980

 

Wet n’ Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September 1980

 

Jungle Gym, Wet n’Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September 1980

 

Coeburn, Virginia, April 1981

 

Member of the Christ Family Religious Sect, Hidlago County, Texas, January 1983

 

A Kickapoo Man in Eagle Pass Texas, January 1983

 

West Virginia, March 1983

 

Domestic Workers Waiting for the Bus, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1983

 

Kansas City, Kansas, May 1983

 

Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona, 1983

 

Grafton, West Virginia, February 1983

 

Canyon Country, California, June 1983

 

A Blind Man in His Garden, Homer, Alaska, June 1984

 

Abandoned Freighter, Homer, Alaska, July 1984

 

 
Agoura, California, February 1988