Mclean, Virginia
Artist
Joel Sternfeld
(American, born 1944)
CultureAmerican
DateDecember 4, 1978
MediumDye transfer print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 15 × 19 1/2 in. (38.1 × 49.5 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 7/16 × 21 1/8 in. (41.8 × 53.7 cm)
Overall, Mat: 23 15/16 × 30 in. (60.8 × 76.2 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 7/16 × 21 1/8 in. (41.8 × 53.7 cm)
Overall, Mat: 23 15/16 × 30 in. (60.8 × 76.2 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Fund
Object number84.270
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a dye transfer print photograph. Depicts a house on fire in the background. A "farm market" in the foreground is selling pumpkins. Label TextJoel Sternfeld American, b. 1944 Mclean, Virginia, December 4, 1978 Dye transfer print (photograph) Joel Sternfeld traveled the United States for 3 years in search of “beauty and harmony in an increasingly uniform…America.” What he found was this curious scene in which a house burns in the background while an indifferent fireman shops for a pumpkin. Sternfeld was drawn to the scene’s naturally vibrant colors, but his work ultimately reveals photography’s artifice. Only after the photograph appeared in Life magazine without comment did it come to light that the fire was a controlled burn for training firemen and the man shopping in the foreground was enjoying a break. Museum purchase 84.270 Exhibition History"The American Landscape: Photographs by Joel Sternfeld and David Allison", Sol B. Frank Photography Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, April 4 - June 29, 1986. "A History of Photography: 15 Years of Photography at the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; September 11, 1993-March 6, 1994. "History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, June 15 - August 22, 1999. "New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson, "The American Landscape: Photographs by Joel Sternfeld and David Allison", The Chrysler Museum BULLETIN, Vol. 16, No. 4 (April 1986), ill. p. 6. Amy E. Herman with Heather Maclean, _smART: Use Your Eyes to Boost Your Brain_ (New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022) 119.
