‘To see something spectacular and recognize it as a photographic possibility is not making a very big leap. But to see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognize it as a photographic possibility – that’s what I’m interested in.’
Executed in 1973, 2nd Street, Ashland, Wisconsin is a superlative example of Shore’s feted Uncommon Places series. Inspired stylistically by Walker Evans’ straight storefronts and Eugène Atget’s survey-like approach to Parisian streets, Shore set out to document the quintessentially American main street.
Taken at dusk, the façade of a typical small-town American cinema is aglow with neon lights. A crowd queues to view The Poseidon Adventure as advertised on the movie marquee. Some of the individuals appear slightly blurred as a result of the long exposure t.mes s of Shore’s large view camera. Shore had only switched to this camera from his 35mm Rollei a few months earlier in order to achieve larger and sharper prints. Necessitating the use of a tripod, his new equipment forced him to slow down, to be less spontaneous and more attentive. In a later interview, Shore linked his approach to photography to another of his favorite endeavors: fishing.
'I watch the fly calmly and attentively so that when the fish strikes—I strike. Then the line tightens, the playing of the fish begins, and t.mes stands still. Fishing, like photography, is an art that calls forth intelligence, concentration, and delicacy.'
Shore’s efforts to create a social portrait of North America’s main street is brilliantly encapsulated in this photograph. Here, his attentive eye, vibrant color palette and deadpan approach merge and gloriously epitomize his gift of turning ordinary objects and scenes into masterpieces worthy of contemplation.