When Joel Sternfeld's first book, American Prospects, was published in 1987, he was immediately welcomed into the pantheon of truly innovative American photographers. TIME magazine wrote: "Pictures that were once compelling oddities are now linked into an original meditation on the national life. It clinches the case for Sternfeld as an emerging American master." Sternfeld has produced several critically acclaimed bodies of work--primarily landscapes--in the years since this classic volume was published. However, Stranger Passing, his new collection of portraits, is closest to American Prospects in its blend of wry & insightful commentary on American life. This long-awaited book accompanies a solo exhibition of Sternfeld's photographs at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in Summer 2001. Taken over a period of fifteen years, the colorful portraits in Stranger Passing offer a distinctive view of contemporary America. A woman in African dress pumps gas at a self-serve filling station.

A Japanese boy in baggy trousers holds a point-and-shoot camera & stares at the photographer. A woman strolls down the street in L.A. carrying her pet rabbit in a clear plastic box. An introduction by celebrated novelist & humor writer Ian Frazier complements Sternfeld's photographs. An essay by Douglas R. Nickel places Sternfeld in the context of the history of photography. The book is in a large trim size & will be produced to the highest standards with gorgeous color reproductions, a full cloth binding, & French-folded jackets.