Stranger Passing

Happy New Year. I hope you accomplished your goals in 2025. My only resolution for 2026 is take more photos. Today I would like to write about a recent pick up and grail I got while on vacation in Los Angeles. It sort of came to me by surprise. I gave someone 20 dollars on Christmas Eve, and the next week, this first edition was sitting on the shelf. I originally intended to go to Arcana in Culver City, but I read the hours wrong, and they were closed for most of the New Years week. I went to a random book store in Echo Park called Stories, and It was just sitting there for probably a lot cheaper than what I could get online and at a specialized art book store. This pick up is Stranger Passing By Joel Sternfeld.

As you all know (maybe I haven’t written about it lately) But I got into 8x10 and It exceeds my expectation more than 4x5. Theres something we lose when we gain something in convenience, and the technicality and art of it all brings me to it, having to carry a tape measure on me to measure my bellows is something I never had to to do or even think about in other mediums. Back to the book

While trying to find more reference materials for 8x10 I really got into Sternfelds stuff, especially The High Line, I want to do something similar to that with the Dunes out here in San Francisco. I’ve been pretty hooked ever since. Him and Soth’s extensive large format work are my go to.

Stranger Passing is a monograph that captures portraits across the USA over a 15 year period. I really enjoy the subtle color pallets and the use of full body portraits. Theres something about the depth of field with a large format view camera. I credit him with being one of the pioneers of color photography. Back in the day it was considered corny and commercial to use color film stocks, and real artists use black and white. Eggleston, Shore, Christenberry are also pioneers of color work.

I was really into portrait photography way back in the day and then I transitioned from wedding_photo.mp3 into street/mysterious-guy-taking-photos-of-trash-core, and would love to get back into it. A lot of large format portraits are studio headshots, but this book features interesting poses and compositions. Below are a few of my favorite shots in the book.

The book opens very strong with a photo titled “A woman pumping gasoline - Kansas City Missouri” My favorite part of the photo is the colors from the dress are subtly visible though out the photo, the yellow from the bollards, red from the brake light, green from the tree, the teal from the address sign, the orange on the cap, etc. The depth of field is incredible as well. Bonus points for Missouri mentioned.

Holding strong to my Missouri roots, the next pic is a trucker in the west bottoms, titled “A man stepping into the cab of his truck - The Bottoms Kansas City MO” and it features a trucker in the west bottoms (thats what we call it these days). The West Bottoms is an industrial part of Kansas City with renovated factories converted to lofts and antique stores, the rents going up special. A glimpse of an old area before it became hype.

I know chesterfield isn’t St Louis, but I still call it St Louis because who cares. Hell Wentzville is St Louis too. Throw Columbia in there I don’t care. This photo features a woman in front of a house in Chesterfield. It looks like a Ryan Homes prefab, a lot of new developments happened in the metro area over the last 20 or so years, so seeing someone standing in front of, what appears to be, a new home, is pretty cool. To the photographers taking photos of job sites and subdivisions, keep doing that. Documenting these things is awesome. I like a photo that ages well and shows you a glimpse of the past, even something as simple as a suburban starter home in its newly built stage.

Okay we finally are able to dip out of Missouri, Woman with a wreath plays into color schemes with green as the primary color. I really enjoy the depth of field on this one and the composition, I like how the subject isnt really centered and it sort of shares the space with the electric pole making it centered, like the pole is a part of the portrait. The outfit is cool as well, photo books are a cool way to find vintage pieces or if you’re a designer a good source of finding vintage pieces to reference.

This is my favorite in the book. I used to dress like this back in the day, reminds me of the Bubba Sparxxx ugly music video. The Fubu jersey was a staple when I was younger, and the bucket hat and rolled up pant leg ties the fit together. The other fit with the cd player and wheat boots also goes very hard. These outfits had the world in a headlock back in the day. I miss seeing people actually dress like this vs wearing it ironically.

As a side note, music videos are great photo inspiration. I’m not a movie person, and a close friend of mine said to take a look at video stills, but I do however like music videos of the time and find a great deal of inspo. I really like regional specific photo books, and all of this stuff reminds me of a few Chris Verene images.

To round this off, I’ve been looking for this book for ages. I try to buy these kind of books in person because its fun to buy them at local book stores and talk to people. Specialized book stores and antiquarians are some of my favorite places. In a world where almost every book store is just 100 copies of atomic habits and Youtuber cook books, its nice to pull up to a book store that has an extensive art monograph section.

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IF you are also a photographer and would like to shoot sometime, leave a comment. I don’t care if you are on the moon I will travel to you.