Wayne Sorce's Nostalgic America

“For me, photography is very important in that it exists because of everything else,” Wayne Sorce stated in a 1973 issue of Camera magazine. For Sorce (1946–2015), his photographs were embedded in the identity of the cities in which they were taken, namely Chicago and New York. The exhibition Urban Color, currently on view at Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, California, presents selections of Sorce’s masterful work from the late 1970s and early ’80s. With their primary-color palette, old Cadillacs, retro store fronts, neon signs, and midcentury street corners, Sorce’s images contain a uniquely American sensibility, akin to the paintings of Edward Hopper. Like Stephen Shore and Walker Evans, Sorce flattens space, filling his images with graphic architecture and wry signage. While photography might exist because of everything else, such nostalgic images of America are enduring because of photographers like Sorce.

Wayne Sorce: Urban Color is on view at Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, California, through December 30, 2017.