Joel Sternfeld
PhotographerKnown for:
American Prospects (1987); large-format color documentary photography
Education:
Dartmouth College (BA, 1965)
Joel Sternfeld drove a Volkswagen camper across the United States for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, photographing in color with an 8×10 large-format camera - an instrument associated with deliberation and craft - subjects that disrupted the pastoral American tradition: a pumpkin stand next to a burning house, a man pushing a shopping cart through a field of wildflowers. American Prospects (1987) is among the most significant bodies of work in color documentary photography. His subsequent projects include Walking the High Line (2001) and Sweet Earth (2006).
Joel Sternfeld's Gear List(1)
Deardorff
Connection note
Sternfeld shot "American Prospects" (1987) and his subsequent series on a large-format 8×10 view camera; the scale of the negative and the deliberation required by the camera's operation shaped his practice of spending extended time in a location before exposing a single sheet of film. His use of the 8×10 is documented in multiple interviews and in the afterword to the expanded edition of "American Prospects" (2003).
Product description
Manufactured by L.F. Deardorff & Sons in Chicago from the 1920s through the 1980s, the 8×10 is a wooden field camera producing negatives 8 by 10 inches. Its bellows design allows for full front and rear movements including tilt, swing, and shift.
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Last updated March 20, 2026
