Appreciating Stephen Shore, Blanton Museum of Art – Austin, Texas

For the photographers who live in Central Texas, I highly recommend going to the Blanton Museum of Art, in Austin, to see “The Open Road”. It’s a temporary exhibit that will end on January 7, 2018. “The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip” features photos from 18 photographers, including some of the biggies such as Robert Frank, Garry Winograd, Lee Friedlander, William Eggleston and Joel Meyerowitz. Many have made their name in street photography.

I went today, on Thursday, which had the added benefit of free admission. By the way, there’s one more Thursday left, on January 4th, before the exhibit closes.

I also brought my new Canon G7X Mark II, which is the perfect small camera for a place like this. High image quality but small and not attracting much attention. I shot these photos with it. A perfectly fine day of making images and studying the classics. What’s not to like.

Beyond the photos on display, I also enjoyed the table with photo books. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment to thumb through, but they had Frank’s Americans and a few other noteworthy books. I spend a couple of hours looking at the gallery as well as the books. Great to see the masters and get ideas.