{"id":62590,"date":"2023-08-11T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T05:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=62590"},"modified":"2025-10-25T17:05:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T16:05:18","slug":"joel-sternfeld-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/joel-sternfeld-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Sternfeld photo exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeldsmall.jpg\" alt=\"Museum steps\" class=\"wp-image-62582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeldsmall.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeldsmall-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>One of America&#8217;s photographic greats and a pioneer of colour art photography enlivens the Viennese autumn and winter: a Joel Sternfeld exhibition at the Albertina focuses on his iconic <em>American Prospects<\/em> series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Life &amp; landscapes across 1980s USA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Photos as powerful documentation &amp; commentary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dashes of humour, too<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Runs Sept 27, 2023 &#8211; Apr 28, 2024<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/albertina\/\">Albertina overview<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Current &amp; future <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/#photography\">photo exhibitions<\/a> in Vienna<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">American Prospects<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld2.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of domestic workers in Georgia\" class=\"wp-image-62585\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld2.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld2-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Joel Sternfeld, Domestic Workers Waiting for the Bus, Atlanta, Georgia, from the American Prospects series, April 1983; Pigment Print; photo \u00a9 Joel Sternfeld | Albertina, Wien)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photographic art still has its noted bias toward black and white photography. We do like our shadows and contrasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Technical limitations meant colour photography as an art form emerged a little later than its monochrome sibling. But a few pioneers took on the challenge, exploiting the opportunities for creativity and documentation of life at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notable proponents, for example, came out of the New Color Photography movement in the USA that began in the late 1960s: photographers like Joel Meyerowitz, William Eggleston, Marie Cosindas\u2026and Joel Sternfeld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sternfeld&#8217;s wide body of art has earned him, for example, two Guggenheim fellowship awards (in 1978 and 1982) and a Montgomery Fellowship (in 2013, alongside the likes of Werner Herzog and Alan Alda).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And a lot of that art has reached the Albertina, thanks to a significant donation of works by the photographer himself. The portfolio has prompted a suitable exhibition with a focus on the iconic <em>American Prospects<\/em> series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Published in 1987 and shot between 1978 and 1986, <em>American Prospects<\/em> remains, perhaps, Sternfeld&#8217;s most influential collection. The series portrays the US landscape of the time and people&#8217;s relationship to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The photographs serve as a multifaceted documentation gilded with critical sociopolitical commentary. A narration of the times, so to speak, as the US entered the Reagan presidential era. The series echoes a theme that characterises his work. As Sternfeld <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2017\/jan\/11\/joel-sternfeld-photographer-america-interview-colour-photographs-1977-88\">puts it himself<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The utopian vision of America contrasted with the dystopian one<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Space Shuttle Columbia\" class=\"wp-image-62584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/sternfeld1-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Joel Sternfeld, The Space Shuttle Columbia lands at Kelly Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, from the American Prospects series, March 1979; Pigment Print; photo \u00a9 Joel Sternfeld | Albertina, Wien)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>American Prospects<\/em> captures, for example, the changes to the natural environment under human and capitalist influence, but also socioeconomic developments as seen in day-to-day scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Domestic workers in pristine suburbs and people viewing beached whales; water parks and landslides; dilapidated factories and new housing developments carved out of the landscape. To name but a few motifs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The juxtapositions within a photo of real life sometimes feel as surreal as anything an artist might drag up from their imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, a fisherman and rudimentary rod in the shadow of the giant USS Alabama battleship or a firefighter buying a pumpkin while his colleagues deal with a raging blaze in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The large format works with their muted and shared pastels feel at turn melancholic, stark and whimsical. Though as Sternfeld himself noted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1854.photography\/2017\/02\/sternfeld\/\">2017 interview<\/a> with the British Journal of Photography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Although there&#8217;s humour in American Prospects, it was for me a deeply serious and political enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tickets\">Dates, tickets &amp; tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Explore Sternfeld&#8217;s journey through the US landscape from September 27th, 2023 to April 28th, 2024. A valid entrance ticket for or from the Albertina includes the photo exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vienna has other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/exhibitions\/#photography\">photo exhibitions<\/a> across at least some of the same period as American prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See what&#8217;s on at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/westlicht\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"42396\">Westlicht photography centre<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/foto-arsenal-wien\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"64035\">FOTO ARSENAL WIEN<\/a>, for example. And two other solo exhibitions for autumn and winter are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Jewish Museum&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/maria-austria-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"61324\">full retrospective<\/a> for Maria Austria, perhaps best known for her photos of Anne Frank&#8217;s hiding place (ends January 14th, 2024)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The work of Yoichi Okamoto at the National Library, particularly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/winter-palace\/yoichi-okamoto-exhibition\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"65008\">his photos<\/a> documenting the rebuilding efforts in Austria and Vienna as both emerged from the ashes and rubble of WWII (ends February 25th, 2025)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get there<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Just follow the tips at the end of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/albertina\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"2995\">main Albertina page<\/a>. The museum is close to the opera house and Hofburg complex right in the centre of Vienna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sternfeld exhibition occupies rooms on the top floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1zfWanf5rPBbnTLLDuah2uixe-Nw\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albertina features one of America&#8217;s photographic greats with a focus on Sternfeld&#8217;s American Prospects series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-62590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62590"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86656,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62590\/revisions\/86656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}