i mean what had i been looking at?

lately, i've been thinking a lot about editing and books. ever since Dennis and i sat with denver, i've been thinking about sequences of photos, and history, and how things evolve. in October, Summer Nights is re-released as Summer Nights, Walking. i'm infinitely interested when a new issue of a classic book comes out, as it poses so many questions. the extended edit always excites me, but confuses me in equal measure. i guess, what i want is for there to be one right way to do it. and, i suppose, the fact that there isn't a right way is what makes it art. however, i want to believe that there is a magic algorithm of light, and form, magic, balance, and sequence that informs a great book. i want to believe that the original edit is it. that the other images, while beautiful, don't speak to the whole the way the original selection does. i want to believe that the first edit is history. unequivocal history.

i want all of this because the converse seems impossible to do without error. again, art.

having said that, i count Stephen Shore's new edition of Uncommon Places one of the most important books i am fortunate enough to own. yet, i found the following excerpt from the book Stephen Shore (from a conversation with Michael Fried) interesting:

MF: let me ask you a question about American Surfaces. did you make way more photos than are collects in the book?

SS: yes.

MF: so the book represents a significant winnowing.

SS: yes, it does, and the same is true of Uncommon Places. although the edition is called 'The Complete Works" it isn't. i have come to realize i am probably a terrible editor of my own work and there are many more pictures from the years of Uncommon Places that are just wonderful.

MF: i believe it. last year there was a show at a gallery in New York of vintage prints from, as it were, Uncommon Places, and i remember being surprised when i got to the Hammer that some of the images i liked best in the New York show weren't in Los Angeles or in the book. are there many such photos?

SS: yes, a significant number more. i regret it being called "The Complete Works"

MF: there will be a revised edition.

SS: or the catalog raisonné. or "The More Complete Works". i'm having a show at the end of this month at 303 Gallery, and i just could not believe the pictures i found that hadn't previously been shown. i mean what had i been looking at? maybe i just hadn't opened the right box or had completely forgotten to look in it.


U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973 © Stephen Shore

i think often about the wonderful images that get cast off. i wonder, with time and reflection, if the great works of today will be reissued as larger edits? will Alec edit an Insomnia by the Mississippi, or Dubois' a More Days and Nights?

in time, i secretly hope so.