This is the first book of Sternfeld's largely unseen early colour photographs. I n 1969 Sternfeld began working with a 35 mm camera and Kodachrome film, and Firs t Pictures contains works from this time until 1980. Here Sternfeld develops tra its that appear in his mature work: irony, a politicised view of America, concer n for the social condition. But there are also pictures that bear little relatio n to his later work: colour arrangements that parallel those of Eggleston, as we ll as street photography which Sternfeld ceased making in 1976. The photographs in First Pictures were made at a time when colour photography was struggling to assert itself against the authoritative black and white tradition, making this b ook a revelation both in Sternfeld's oeuvre and in the history of contemporary p hotography.