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PUBLISHER
Steidl

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 15 x 11.75 in. / 152 pgs / 70 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2020 p. 34   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783958296695 TRADE
List Price: $125.00 CAD $175.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

TERRITORY
NA ONLY

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STEIDL

Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects

Text by Kerry Brougher, Andy Grundberg, Anne W. Tucker.

Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects

The definitive edition of Joel Sternfeld’s seminal American Prospects, featuring new photographs, and a revised format and cover

First published in 1987 to critical acclaim, the seminal American Prospects has been likened to Walker Evans’ American Photographs and Robert Frank’s The Americans in both its ability to visually summarize the zeitgeist of a decade and to influence the course of photography following its publication.

This definitive edition of American Prospects contains 12 new pictures, most of which have neither been published nor exhibited. Freed from the size constraints of previous editions, Sternfeld includes portraits and portraits in the landscape that elucidate the human condition in America. The result is a more complex and rounded view of American society that strongly anticipates Sternfeld’s Stranger Passing series (1985–2000) and links the two bodies of work.

A major figure in the photography world, Joel Sternfeld was born in New York City in 1944. He has received numerous awards, including two Guggenheim fellowships, a Prix de Rome and the Citibank Photography Award. Sternfeld’s books published by Steidl include American Prospects (2003), Sweet Earth (2006), Oxbow Archive (2008), First Pictures (2012) and Landscape as Longing (2016) with Frank Gohlke.


Featured image is reproduced from 'Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects.'

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

It's Nice That

Ayla Angelos

40 years on and Joel Sternfeld’s photo book American Prospects has never been more relevant.

Brooklyn Rail

Greta Rainbow

Young couples frolicking in Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon’s sheer existence, the colors of East Coast autumn—these are also America. Through Sternfeld’s eyes, we could be convinced that this mess of a place is worth saving. It’s not too late to raze the estates and catch a glimpse of the mountain view.

Huck

Miss Rosen

Taken together, these photographs speak of Two Americas — myth and truth — that have always coexisted in plain sight.

Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

For assistance locating a copy, please see our list of recommended out of print specialists

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/28/2020

A new, expanded edition of Joel Sternfeld's seminal 'American Prospects'

A new, expanded edition of Joel Sternfeld's seminal 'American Prospects'

Featured image, captioned "South Texas, January 1983," is reproduced from Steidl's new and expanded edition of Joel Sternfeld's influential 1987 photography book, American Prospects—now featuring a dozen new and mostly unpublished images. "In the future, no doubt, these images will seem suffused with nostalgia, much as we now see Walker Evans's photographs of the 1930s," Andy Grundberg wrote in the first edition. "They will seem less ironic and more totemic, and their sometimes acid social commentary will lose much of its bite. But for now they speak of a time when progress lost its sense of inevitability, when the land lost its last pretense to innocence, when the spirit of individualism flickered for want of fresh air. They also speak of nature's restorative powers, of human goodness, of men and women seeking to accommodate their primal needs to the imperative of technological society. It is tricky business, balancing these messages, and it does not make for ideological simplicity or political instrumentality. However, in these photographs Sternfeld manages to eke a measure of harmony out of an assortment of follies, which makes American Prospects a metonym for the state of our times." continue to blog


JOEL STERNFELD MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects

JOEL STERNFELD: AMERICAN PROSPECTS

Steidl

ISBN: 9783969991398
USD $175.00
| CAD $265

Pub Date: 6/24/2025
Forthcoming


Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects

JOEL STERNFELD: AMERICAN PROSPECTS

Steidl

ISBN: 9783969992296
USD $50.00
| CAD $73

Pub Date: 12/12/2023
Active | Out of stock


Joel Sternfeld: Nags Head

JOEL STERNFELD: NAGS HEAD

Steidl

ISBN: 9783969993187
USD $55.00
| CAD $79

Pub Date: 6/25/2024
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: History in Pictures

JOEL STERNFELD: HISTORY IN PICTURES

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958297609
USD $65.00
| CAD $91

Pub Date: 6/24/2025
Forthcoming


Joel Sternfeld: Walking the High Line

JOEL STERNFELD: WALKING THE HIGH LINE

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958297647
USD $45.00
| CAD $65

Pub Date: 12/12/2023
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: Our Loss

JOEL STERNFELD: OUR LOSS

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958296589
USD $50.00
| CAD $69.95

Pub Date: 9/17/2019
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: Rome after Rome

JOEL STERNFELD: ROME AFTER ROME

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958292635
USD $95.00
| CAD $130

Pub Date: 11/12/2019
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: Oxbow Archive

JOEL STERNFELD: OXBOW ARCHIVE

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290204
USD $75.00
| CAD $99

Pub Date: 6/24/2025
Forthcoming


Joel Sternfeld: Sweet Earth

JOEL STERNFELD: SWEET EARTH

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290211
USD $65.00
| CAD $87

Pub Date: 6/24/2025
Forthcoming


Frank Gohlke & Joel Sternfeld: Landscape as Longing

FRANK GOHLKE & JOEL STERNFELD: LANDSCAPE AS LONGING

Steidl

ISBN: 9783958290327
USD $75.00
| CAD $99

Pub Date: 4/25/2017
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: Stranger Passing

JOEL STERNFELD: STRANGER PASSING

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869304991
USD $75.00
| CAD $99

Pub Date: 8/15/2012
Active | Out of stock


Joel Sternfeld: On This Site

JOEL STERNFELD: ON THIS SITE

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869304342
USD $65.00
| CAD $87

Pub Date: 7/15/2012
Active | Out of stock


Joel Sternfeld: First Pictures

JOEL STERNFELD: FIRST PICTURES

Steidl

ISBN: 9783869303093
USD $75.00
| CAD $99

Pub Date: 7/7/2011
Active | Out of stock


Joel Sternfeld: iDubai

JOEL STERNFELD: IDUBAI

Steidl Photography International

ISBN: 9783865219169
USD $40.00
| CAD $54

Pub Date: 5/31/2010
Active | In stock


Joel Sternfeld: When It Changed

JOEL STERNFELD: WHEN IT CHANGED

Steidl

ISBN: 9783865212788
USD $35.00
| CAD $47.5

Pub Date: 4/1/2008
Active | In stock