Uncommon Places — Stephen Shore, 1982, first edition with dust jacket

One of the most influential photobooks of the twentieth century, Uncommon Places marked a turning point for colour photography and for the visual language of American space. Published in 1982 by Aperture, this is the scarce first edition hardcover with the original unclipped dust jacket — the definitive form of a book that changed everything.

Working with a large-format view camera, Stephen Shore photographed anonymous intersections, motel rooms, signage, and city edges across 1970s America. What emerged was a new kind of photography: stripped of narrative, radiant in its clarity, formally precise and rooted in the banal. These are not decisive moments but sustained ones — quiet, frontal, and loaded with ambient unease.

The maroon clothbound edition presented here features 61 colour plates across 64 pages, designed by Wendy Byrne and printed with early fidelity to Shore’s Kodachrome palette. As cited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger in The Photobook: A History Vol. 2 (p.35), it stands as a “fantastic, very important color photobook” — foundational to the New Topographics and the rise of colour as serious photographic form.

This copy retains the original dustjacket, complete and fresh with only minor sunning and faint exterior marks. A cornerstone of any serious photobook collection.

Technical Sheet
Title: Uncommon Places
Artist / Author: Stephen Shore
Date: 1982
Technique / Printing Method: Offset printing
Medium / Materials: Hardcover with dust jacket, maroon cloth
Dimensions: 24.3 x 28.3 cm
Pages: 64
Plates: 61 colour photographs
Publisher / Editor: Aperture, Millerton, New York
ISBN: 0-89381-101-7
Condition: Overall fine; interior flawless, dustjacket lightly sunned but complete and unclipped