Joel Sternfeld’s landmark portrait of American pathos & dreams

A new edition of the iconic photographer’s seminal photobook American Prospects captures late empire like no other.

After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978 photographer Joel Sternfeld hit the road in a Volkswagen camper van to follow the seasons across the United States. 8 x 10 view camera in tow, he left behind his native Brooklyn and street photography practice in search of something greater still.

Sternfeld remembers an apocalyptic sense hung in the air, the nation still reeling from the abject failure of the Vietnam War and the utter disgrace of the Nixon Presidency. Desperate for the illusion of normalcy, voters tuned out warnings from then-President Jimmy Carter of a mindless malaise seeping into the nation’s soul, electing a B-list Hollywood actor with an itchy trigger finger to the White House in 1980.

Over the course of a decade, Sternfeld returned to the road time and again with the support of additional NEA and Guggenheim grants. Working with a large format camera required a new approach; at seven dollars a sheet of film, he immersed himself in the landscape, mentally storyboarding images that distilled the emotional complexity of a nation barreling into the dystopian spectre of late empire.

Top to bottom: Wet’n Wild Aquatic Theme Park, Orlando, Florida, September 1980; The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC, May 1986

From the outset of his career, Sternfeld worked in colour and was fascinated by the ways in which it could elevate the medium to levels yet to be revealed. Colour was a moody, mythic force that had the power to reveal profound psychological truths of time and place.

For Sternfeld, the view camera proved the perfect instrument, it’s monumental format requiring him to develop rhythms naturally aligned with the landscape. “I can wander around all day long and never press the shutter, and it's active and exciting every minute of the day; I'm always seeing things and thinking things and having memories,” he says.

In 1987, Sternfeld published the work as American Prospects to wide acclaim, his majestic portrait of Manifest Destiny run amok. He photographed outside New York’s notorious Attica Correctional Facility, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, and an abandoned uranium refinery forced on the lands of the Navajo Nation. Among his most famous images from the series is a two-story house on fire just behind farmer’s market and pumpkin patch in McLean, Virginia — a training exercise, viewers might learn after the fact, the truth only adding to its complexities.

Domestic Workers Waiting for the Bus, Atlanta, Georgia, April 1983

Drawing inspiration from Walt Whitman, who kept revising Leaves of Grass all his life, Sternfeld returned to American Prospects (Steidl) in 2020 to contemplate his portrait of the nation anew. The revisited edition makes visible histories intrinsically woven into the American landscape that have otherwise gone overlooked: that of indigenous nations who have been stewards of the land for millennia now living inside the belly of the beast.

Taken together, these photographs speak of Two Americas — myth and truth — that have always coexisted in plain sight. “In the future, no doubt, these images will seem suffused with nostalgia, much as we now see Walker Evans’s photographs of the 1930s,” photo critic Andy Grundberg writes in the book. “But for now they speak of a time when progress lost its sense of inevitability.”

Bear Lake, Utah, July 1979
Lake Oswego, Oregon, June 1979
After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, California, July 1979
Canyon Country, California, June 1983
Interstate 79, Bridgeport, West Virginia, March 1983
Wyoming, 1994

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram.

Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.

You might like

Culture

Director Steve McQueen explores life under occupation

Steven McQueen provides a haunting examination of Amsterdam under Nazi occupation in contrast to its present in his documentary adapted from Bianca Stigter's book of the same name.

A collage depicting a giant flup for mankind, with an image of the Earth surrounded by planets and people in sci-fi costumes.
Culture

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind

Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.

Written by: Emma Garland

Three orange book covers with the title "Foreign Fruit" against a dark background.
Culture

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”

Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.

Written by: Angela Hui

A punk rock band performing on stage, with a female lead singer belting into a microphone. Behind them, a colourful mural with graffiti-style text.
Music

Meet the hair-raised radicals of Berlin’s noise punk scene

Powertool — In his new zine, George Nebieridze captures moments of loud rage and quiet intimacy of the German capital’s bands, while exploring the intersections between music, community and anti-establishment politics.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Surfers against sewage protest box floating in water with people swimming around it.
© Alex Brown / Surfers Against Sewage
Sport

The rebellious roots of Cornwall’s surfing scene

100 years of waveriding — Despite past attempts to ban the sport from beaches, surfers have remained as integral, conservationist presences in England’s southwestern tip. A new exhibition in Falmouth traces its long history in the area.

Written by: Ella Glossop

Huck 79

We are all Mia Khalifa

How humour, therapy and community help Huck's latest cover star control her narrative.

Written by: Alya Mooro

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.