Significance: Joel shot large-format documentary style photos to help establish color photography as a respected artistic medium.
Art Historical or Photographic Movement: He worked to establish color photography as an accepted artistic medium.
Critique/Review: Ian Frazier, a writer, critiqued Sternfeld's work. His view of Sternfeld was that he did not pigeonhole people. He sees his subject matter accurately and leaves conclusions up to others. "Neither the best nor the worst that a person can be is ruled out automatically." I believe Sternfeld's ability to leave judgement out of his photographs led him to successfully document social class and stereotypes in the US.
Composition: Sternfeld's compositions are shot in a documentary style. The majority of his images have great depth of field and are shot from what seems like a bystander's point of view. Many of the compositions feature decay or a sense of looming disaster. In one image, he has shot a scene of a home on fire. The point of view from which he has made this image seems like he was documenting the pumpkin stand in the foreground and just happened to capture a disaster.
Concept/Aboutness/Idea: Sternfeld shot a number of different series, American Prospects (1987) documented human-altered landscapes in the US. He photographed everyday scenes for this project. Many of the scenes featured abandoned towns or desolate landscapes. On This Site: Landscape in Memoriam (1997) was a project about violence in America. He photographed sites where tragedies had recently taken place. He included text next to the images that explained what had happened there. He has also worked with imagery concerning social class and stereotypes in the US, abandoned railways, global warming debates, and cemeteries.
Method: Sternfeld shot large-format color photos in a documentary style. He shot the majority of these images with a great depth of field. He shot scenes where tragedies had previously occurred, desolate landscapes, and stereotypes.
Motivation: Sternfeld seemed to be interested in capturing the negative aspects of the American landscape. Many of his images feature the decay of abandoned civilizations of sites where something terrible or grotesque has occurred. Annie Hobbs reviewed Sternfeld's book On This Site and noted that he showed "America's big imperfections in a subtle and serene way."
Opinion: I am most interested in the concept behind On This Site. I respect Sternfeld's ability to document emotionally charged spaces. He truly seems to be capable of documenting imperfections of the American landscape in a beautiful way.
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