Canyon County, California
Maker
Sternfeld, Joel
American, b. 1944
Date1983
MediumChromogenic development print
Dimensionsframe: 21 in x 24 1/8 in x 2 in; image: 13 in x 16 1/2 in
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number1994:62
About the ArtistWith a career spanning over fifty years, Joel Sternfeld is regarded as a major influence in contemporary landscape photography, in part as an early proponent of working in color. In the tradition of the New Topographics photographers, Sternfeld documents the American landscape, noting the ironic, often destructive impact of human activity on the land. His photographs balance wry social observation with a poetic sensitivity to light and color.Among Sternfeld’s iconic works, McLean, Virginia (1978) depicts a suburban house engulfed in flames while a uniformed fireman nonchalantly shops for pumpkins nearby, capturing the surreal contradictions of American life. Similarly, Exhausted Elephant, Woodland, Washington (1979) portrays a circus elephant collapsed on a roadside, surrounded by handlers and passersby. The scene, both absurd and tragic, underscores the uneasy relationship between humanity and the natural world, a recurring theme in Sternfeld’s practice.
For his seminal On This Site series, Sternfeld photographed locations across the United States where crimes and acts of violence had taken place. In contrast to his depictions of the absurd, each site appears disarmingly ordinary, with no visible traces of the events that occurred there, prompting viewers to consider how landscapes can conceal complex histories.
Joel Sternfeld was born in New York on June 30, 1944. He holds a BA from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (1965), and began photographing in color in 1970. He is the recipient of two Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships (1978 and 1982), a National Endowment for the Arts Photographers Fellowship (1980), and the Prix de Rome (1990–91). Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. His photographs are also in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Seattle Art Museum; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Sternfeld has taught at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, since 1985.
