Joel Sternfeld (b.1944, New York) is a renowned photographer, celebrated for pioneering color photography in the seventies and for his many groundbreaking works since then. He is the author of 17 books including the recently published Our Loss.

His oeuvre sits within the American documentary tradition of Walker Evans and Robert Frank, exploring social and political issues, while carrying a strong sense of poetry and wry humor. It is now embedded in art history and has contributed significantly to landscape theory.

His legendary American Prospects series (first published in 1987) depicts the grand and sullied landscapes of America and helped to usher in a new breed of contemporary photographers, making him one of the most influential artists of his generation.

Joel Sternfeld is recipient of two Guggenheim fellowships, a Prix de Rome and the Citybank Photography award. His works is held in major public collections around the world: Museum of Modern Art (New York), Whitney Museum of Art (New York), Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Fotomuseum Winterthur (Zurich), Albertina Museum (Vienna), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris) etc.

He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, where he holds the Noble Foundation Chair in Art and Cultural History.