Capture Speaker Series | Stephen Shore In Conversation with Kristen Gaylord
Wed Apr 1, 2026 | 7–9 PM
From left to right: Stephen Shore, 2022, Photo: Richard Renaldi; Kristen Gaylord, Photo: Ciara Elle Bryant
Join us for a conversation with Stephen Shore, the groundbreaking American photographer behind Uncommon Places, in dialogue with Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Shore will join us online, and Gaylord will be attending in person.
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places, this discussion situates Shore’s landmark series, made on road trips across North America in the 1970s and early 1980s, within his long and influential career. By capturing everyday places and objects in vivid colour, meticulous detail and striking clarity, Shore’s work helped establish colour photography as a serious artistic medium. His ongoing exploration of photographic perception incorporates new technologies and continues to influence contemporary practice today.
Through this conversation, attendees will gain insight into Shore’s approach, the enduring significance of Uncommon Places and the ways photography can transform how we see the familiar in everyday life.
The Capture Opening Reception will follow the talk, offering an opportunity to celebrate the exhibition and connect with fellow photography enthusiasts.
This event is free and open to the public.
Doors will open at 6:30 PM. Seating is first come, first served.
Please note that capacity for this event is limited. The first 100 attendees will be seated in the talk space in the 4th Floor gallery, with Shore on screen and Gaylord in person. The remaining attendees will be able to watch via a live stream from overflow space in Room 4East.
Alternatively, all are welcome to join this talk virtually via Zoom.
This talk is co-presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery and Capture Photography Festival as part of the 2026 Capture Speaker Series and is generously supported by Claudia Beck. Capture’s 2026 Speaker Series is generously supported by The Michael and Inna O’Brian Family Foundation.
Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places is part of the 2026 Capture Photography Festival Featured Exhibitions Program.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Stephen Shore’s groundbreaking work has shaped contemporary photography for over four decades. He was the first living photographer to have a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since Alfred Stieglitz, and his influential exhibitions at Light Gallery in the 1970s helped establish colour photography as a serious artistic medium. Shore’s work is included in the collections of major institutions worldwide. In 2017, the Museum of Modern Art presented a landmark retrospective spanning his entire career, cementing his status as a central figure in photographic history. Shore has published more than 30 books, including Uncommon Places and American Surfaces, and authored The Nature of Photographs, a seminal text on visual perception. Since 1982, he has served as Director of the Photography Program and Susan Weber Professor in the Arts at Bard College. His work is represented by 303 Gallery in New York and Sprüth Magers in London, Berlin and Los Angeles.
Kristen Gaylord is the Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where this year she will open Widline Cadet’s first solo exhibition at an American museum as well as Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, co-curated for the National Gallery of Art. In her previous role at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Gaylord worked with artists including Stephanie Syjuco, Camille Utterback and Christina Fernandez and organized exhibitions including Moving Pictures: Karl Struss and the Rise of Hollywood (2024), whose catalogue won Der Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. Gaylord also held multiple curatorial roles at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she contributed to exhibitions and publications including Stephen Shore (2017); Arbus Friedlander Winogrand: New Documents, 1967 (2017); and Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015. She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.
The Chan Family
