The Mental Image
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-1-917651-78-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Mental Image is the latest book by Stephen Shore, one of the most influential photographers, writers, and teachers working today. Here, Shore turns to the inner life of images: how photographs are imagined, sensed, and carried in the body. Following on from The Nature of Photographs (2013) and Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography (2022), this richly illustrated volume brings together numerous anecdotes, influences, references, and teachings to show how visualisation, attention, and embodiment can fundamentally alter how we perceive the world around us. Both practical and philosophical, The Mental Image offers a luminous and disciplined approach to seeing, for photographers, artists, and anyone drawn to a deeper understanding of perception.
More details
Person
Stephen Shore's work has been widely published and exhibited for the past fifty-five years. At age twenty-three, he was the first living photographer to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, forty years earlier. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art staged a major retrospective. More than thirty books have been published of Shore's photographs including Uncommon Places: The Complete Works and American Surfaces, works which are now considered important milestones in photographic history. Since 1982 he has been the Director of the Photography Program at Bard College, where he is the Susan Weber Professor in the Arts. Shore is represented by 303 Gallery (New York) and Sprueth Magers (London, Los Angeles, Berlin).