This is the first book of Joel Sternfeld’s largely unseen early color photographs. In 1969 Sternfeld began working with a 35-mm camera and Kodachrome film, and First Pictures contains works from this time until 1980. Here Sternfeld develops traits that appear in his mature work: irony, a politicized view of America, concern for the social condition. But there are also pictures that bear little relation to his later work: color arrangements that parallel those of Eggleston, as well as street photography which Sternfeld ceased making in 1976. The photographs in First Pictures were made at a time when color photography was struggling to assert itself against the authoritative black-and-white tradition, making this book a revelation both in Sternfeld’s oeuvre and in the history of contemporary photography.A major figure in the photography world, Joel Sternfeld was born in New York City in 1944. He has received numerous awards including two Guggenheim fellowships, a Prix de Rome and the Citibank Photography Award. Sternfeld’s books published by Steidl include American Prospects (2003), Sweet Earth (2006) and Oxbow Archive (2008).