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A review of Stranger Passing

by Joel Sternfeld

Vivid and fascinating collection of photographic portraits that documents the changing American landscape.

Reviewed by: A.J. Kohn
About A.J. Kohn

Stranger Passing Joel Sternfeld's 'Stranger Passing', a collection of sixty photographic portraits, is an art book worth having. This is high praise since I generally find art books to be nearly useless. Bought with the best of intentions, they usually wind up unopened and coated with a layer of dust. Besides, they're oversized and don't fit on any of my bookshelves. You need to have an Architectural Digest type living room with an attractive smoked glass coffee table to really pull off the art book thing. It's not that I might not like, say, a Van Gogh art book, but I can get a print and have it on my wall where it can truly be appreciated. Or I can buy a calendar and each month marvel at a different masterpiece.

'Stranger Passing' is not the typical art book because you can't find Sternfeld's work in your local mall. And since buying it I have found myself pulling it out and flipping through it more then a few times. I happened upon Sternfeld's work by accident during an Ansel Adams exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Adams' work is beautiful, but I found that I'd seen too many of his prints in dorm rooms, hung by co-eds striving for culture. This combined with the dawning realization that, while striking, many of Adams' photographs told the same general story - the beauty of nature.

Clogged with people and unsatisfied I wandered into a room with huge nearly life size portraits, which upon closer inspection weren't paintings at all but were actual photographs! I was drawn in immediately by the detailed, quirky, truly gorgeous photos that showcased a variety of people and landscapes. The subjects were from all walks of life and one photo would convey the harsh realities of the homeless while another would poke fun at excess or expose eccentricities.

I found myself thinking about the people in the photographs, creating stories about who they were, what they were thinking, what had brought them to that specific time and place. If you've ever people-watched, you know exactly what I mean.

Each photo tells a story. The cover photo of 'Stranger Passing' is titled 'Young Man Gathering Shopping Carts' and portrays a teenager - blond bob cut hair, open button-down shirt, loosened tie - standing in a parking lot cluttered with pink shopping carts, an all too familiar generic strip mall as the backdrop. You can feel his discontent and nearly hear the Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure looking dude grumbling as he collects the carts and pushes them over the pot-holed parking lot.

The juxtaposition of a colorful sari wrapped middle-eastern woman pumping gas or newlyweds posing in a backyard with a flipped over kiddie pool are engrossing. Some of my favorites in the collection include; a young shirtless man standing in front of a colorful demolition derby car; a bald man in a biking shirt, smiling baby strapped to his chest with two ocher colored dogs at his side; and a poofy haired young woman clad in a cotton candy colored jacket holding her pet rabbit in a plastic carrying case.

You don't need a guide to help you understand these photos. No pompous, overly academic explanations about brush strokes or f-stops are required. Vivid, accessible and fascinating, 'Stranger Passing' is a sprawling collection that documents the changing American landscape through the experiences of Sternfeld's subjects.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Stranger Passing

Copyright © by A.J. Kohn, 2002

Reviewed by A.J. Kohn:
-- Motherless Brooklyn - by Jonathan Lethem
-- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - by Douglas Adams
-- Stranger Passing - by Joel Sternfeld
-- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - by Michael Chabon
-- Bloodsucking Fiends - by Christopher Moore
-- The Long Rain - by Peter Gadol









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