GREENWICH, CONN.- Beauty, sadness and humor are woven through complex portraits of America in “Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects.” On view at the Bruce Museum Oct. 3, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025, the exhibition is an ode to the artist’s 1987 landmark photography book, “American Prospects,” and coincides with a new edition published by Steidl Press. The Bruce mounted more than 40 large-scale color prints, ranging from Sternfeld’s most iconic images to never-before-exhibited photographs.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Canyon Country, California, June 1983, printed 2022. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld


Sternfeld (American, b. 1944) was an early adopter of color photography as fine art. He explored the medium’s potential in the 1960s and 70s with a small cohort of pioneers, including William Eggleston, Helen Levitt and Stephen Shore. Sternfeld initially focused on New York street photography and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978. Longing to explore beyond the confines of the urban grid, the award supported his purchase of a Volkswagen camper and a wooden 8 x 10 view camera, his tools as he embarked on a multi-year quest to capture scenes across the country.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), South Texas, January 1983, printed 2022. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld


The work of documentary photographers Walker Evans and Robert Frank inspired Sternfeld to observe people and places across the United States and record what was great, vital and regenerative about the nation. Despite sensing deep fissures and contradictions in the country at the time, he went on the road with a sense of optimism and discovery, delighting in the curious, bizarre and accidental moments in everyday life.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona, August 1983, printed 2024. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld

Sternfeld traversed the nation from 1978 to 1987, taking thousands of photographs. His large-format view camera accommodated 8 x 10-inch sheets of color negative film, with a small shutter opening that achieved great depth of field. Ansel Adams and Edward Weston used the same methods in their famous black-and-white photographs, producing razor-sharp detail and an infinite range of tones. Sternfeld’s pictures were composed carefully around color harmonies, often focusing on pastel hues of two or three dominant colors and were guided by a strong sense of geometry and order despite the visual chaos of life they portrayed.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Abandoned Freighter, Homer, Alaska, July 1984, printed 2024. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld


The resulting images revealed beautiful land and the eternal cycle of the seasons, damaged landscapes and industry in decline and the variety and resiliency of the American people. The artist has referred to the underlying theme of his work as the utopian vision of America contrasted with the dystopian one. The first edition of “American Prospects” featured 55 images created from four-color plates that capture both America’s beauty and its flaws. The book was published to wide acclaim and is regarded as an important early monument of color photography.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Wet'n Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September 1980, printed 2024. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld


“Joel Sternfeld developed a unique aesthetic for the use of color and a distinctive personal vision,” said guest curator Robert Wolterstorff, the former Susan E. Lynch executive director of the Bruce Museum. “His powerful images are imbued with a sense of irony and depict a vision of Americans that is as complicated as the nation, inviting contemplation on ideas of paradise versus reality through modern conceptions of landscape.”


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), The Space Shuttle Columbia Lands at Kelly Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, March 1979, printed 2024. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld


“American Prospects” includes a 1978 photograph of a farm market in McLean, Virginia that depicts a uniformed fireman shopping for pumpkins as a house fire rages in the background, the autumnal colors coordinating with the flames. Published in Life magazine, the absurd image is one of the most recognized scenes of Sternfeld’s career. Other subjects include an elephant collapsed on a road in Washington state, clouds approaching a busy waterpark in Florida and the landing of the space shuttle Columbia at Kelly Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), Coeburn, Virginia, April 1981, printed 2022. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld

Sternfeld’s work captures details of specific moments in time, serving as an archive for the future as well as a caution toward photography’s manipulative power. In a 2004 interview with The Guardian, Sternfeld said, “No individual photo explains anything. That's what makes photography such a wonderful and problematic medium. It is the photographer's job to get this medium to say what you need it to say.”


Joel Sternfeld (American, b. 1944), McLean, Virginia, December 1978, printed 2024. Archival pigment print, 50 x 60 in. © Joel Sternfeld

Sternfeld is based in New York and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and the Rome Prize. His work has been exhibited in institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), the Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco).

“Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects” is generously sponsored by Gabelli Funds.