The big picture: Stephen Shore’s New York nuns

Almost every frame is reminiscent of a different age. The cars, clothes and adverts are unmistakably mid-century, as are the newspaper headlines (“Liz Tamed Me!” – Richard Burton) and the price of records ($0.99). Even the faces look like they hail from a bygone era.

Then there are these three nuns, clustered together on a Manhattan street, their expressions ranging from awestruck to sternly sceptical as they confront the big, uncontainable city. Even back then, a huddle of nuns in full regalia might have caused seen-it-all New Yorkers to briefly stop and stare. And that was at the peak of the Catholic sisterhood in America. In 1965, there were 180,000 nuns in the US. Nearly 60 years later, in 2022, there were fewer than 40,000. If any of these women are still alive, they won’t be much older than the average age for an American nun today, which is just below 80.

It might be tempting to make assumptions about these young women: that they’re from out of town, seeing New York for the first time, torn between wonderment and disapproval. But really we can only guess. The moment has long passed, as has Shore’s memory of it.

“Stephen remembers very little of taking the photographs,” I was told when I contacted his publisher for comment. In the book, the 77-year-old recalls in minute detail all the cameras and lenses he used during those formative years but hardly any of the images they produced – even photographing Robert Kennedy at the 1964 Democratic National Convention completely escaped him.

The memories may have vanished for ever, but the records of that time and place, which also trace the emergence of a remarkable artistic talent, have been preserved. And they are glorious. 

Early Work by Stephen Shore is published by Mack Books (£55)