Assignment 2 - Philip-Lorca DiCorcia "Heads"

For the second assignment I have decided to use the "Heads" series of images to focus on. This series of images was created between 1999 - 2001 in Times Square, New York. This piece is is in the style of street photography but with a twist! DiCorcia rigged strobe lighting to scaffolding on the sidewalk, from a distance of approximately twenty feet, DiCorcia stood, focused on a predetermined point. When a subject he considered suitable passed through this "X" marked area, DiCorcia would take his image, triggering the lights which created a mostly blacked out area, focusing attention on the heads and shoulders of his unknowing subjects.  The resulting photographs show people that are absorbed in their own worlds and thoughts, creating an image that causes the viewer to create their own backstory.

DiCorcia based the concept of this series on the Baader-Meinhof Gang was one of post WW2 Germany's most prolific left wing terror groups. Each member had to live amongst their neighbours, pretending to be something they weren't, DiCorcia is quoted as saying "their interior and private life was in no way reflected in their exterior". It is my belief that this is what DiCorcia was trying to reflect with this series, the notion that regardless of how we percieve the person in the images, the fact is we have no real idea about the person just from the way they look and behave.

DiCorcia published the series in a book with the same title in October 2001. The book contained 17 full bleed images and was 38cmx30cm high. Each image addorned the right hand page and the left simply contained the number of the image in apparently random order. The opening chapter of the book is an essay by Luc Sante which explains the method in which DiCorcia captured his images.

Research References

• Warburton,Nigel. (Unknown year of publication). Caught unawares: from Philip-Lorcia diCorcia’s Heads. Available: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/tag/times-square/. Last accessed 26th Nov 2011.

• Smitch,Leslie. (Unknown year of publication). Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Available: http://www.lslimited.com/cgi-local/view.cgi?level_3=4. Last accessed 26th Nov 2011.

• Wortnan,Rachel . (April 25th 2010). Street level: Intersections of Art and the Law Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s “Heads” Project and Nussenzweig v. diCorcia. Available: http://gnovisjournal.org/2010/04/25/street-level-intersections-art-and-law-philip-lorca-dicorcias-heads-project-and-nussenzweig/. Last accessed 26th Nov 2011.

• Bright,Susan (2011). Art Photography Now. London: Thames and Hudson. 216-217

Research references

Philips,Sarah. (2011). Photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia's best shot. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jun/05/philip-lorca-dicorcia-photography. Last accessed 17th November 2011.

Lacan,Jaques. (Unknown year of publication). diCorcia, Philip-Lorca. Available: http://www.lacan.com/dicorcia.htm. Last accessed 17th

Unknown Author. (Unknown year of publication). Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Available: http://www.cmoa.org/international/the_exhibition/artist.asp?dicorcia. Last accessed 16th November 2011.

Unknown Author. (Unknown year of publication). Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Available: http://www.thecollectiveshift.com/show/portfolio/diCorcia. Last accessed 17th November 2011.

Devens,Dorian (2003). INTERVIEW: “Photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia Talks’” (2003). Available: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/09/interview-photographer-philip-lorca-dicorcia-talks-2003.html. Last accessed 17th November 2011.

Schuman,Aaron. (2007). Not Any More: Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s 'Thousand'. Available: http://aaronschuman.com/plcthousand.html. Last accessed Nov 15th 2011.

Nussenzweig V DiCorcia

Below is an excerpt from the New York Court of Appeal regarding court proceedings that where brought against DiCorcia for an image he took and subsequently sold as part of his "Heads" series.

Nussenzweig V DiCorcia 

 http://www.law.cornell.edu/nyctap/I07_0144.htm

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia... continued

Individual Exhibitions

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
Foam Fotographiemuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Gagosian Gallery, London, England
Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Cologne, Germany
Fondazoine Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia, Italy

Helga deAlvear, Madrid, Spain
Monica deCardenas, Milan, Italy
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France

PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England; traveling to Centre National de la Photographie, Paris,France; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthall; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Mesa, Venice, Italy; Centro de Arte Visuais, Coimbra, Portugal
Fundacion Telefonica, PhotoEspaña, Madrid, Spain

Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Monica De Cardenas, Milan, Italy
Barbara Krakow, Boston, Massachusetts

PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Galerie Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich, Germany
Gagosian Gallery, London, England

Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
Lawing Gallery, Houston, Texas
Galeria OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Art Space Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Hustler/Streetwork, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Streetwork, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France

Publications 

Thousand, 2007
So the Story Goes, 2006
A Storybook Life, 2004
Fashioning Fiction in Photography Since 1990, 2004

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, 2003
The Citigroup Private Bank Photography Prize 2002, 2002
Heads, 2001

Streetwork, 1998

Magazine Publications

Esquire

Fortune

Conde Nast

W Magazine

Life Magazine

Assignment 1 - Philip-Lorca DiCorcia

• Born 1951, Connecticut, USA. 

• Studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston then went on to achieve his Masters in photography at Yale. 

• Currently lives & Works in New York.

• Senior photography critic at Yale University. 

• Short stint working as a postman!

Influences

Guy Bourdin

A French fashion photographer, best known for his work for French Vogue from the fifties to the mid eighties.

Walker Evans

 Best known for his his documentary of the great depression. 

William Eggelston

 Known for photographing common place objects and everday subjects.

Garry Winogrand

Street photographer known for his portrayl of America in the mid twentieth century.

A quote from DiCorcia

‘More so than a lot of people, I think that I’m concerned with how an image looks - the production values, or whatever you want to call it. It’s always seemed rather shameful to me how easy photography is.  So I’m not someone who makes a virtue of spontaneity, or wilfully disobeying the “rules”.  But then, how can you disobey the rules of something that had no rules to begin with?  It’s ridiculous.’ Aaron Schuman. (2007). Not Any More: Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s 'Thousand'. Available:http://aaronschuman.com/plcthousand.html. Last accessed Nov 15th 2011.

 Genres

From my research into Philip-Lorca DiCorcia it is obvious he is a remarkably diverse photographer. Below are some examples of images from the various genres he works within.

Art

"Hustlers" was a choreagraphed series of images where DiCorcia would set up the scene with the aid of an assistant, after this initial setup he would approach a hustler (rent boy) and pay them their lowest rate to pose in the image.

"Hustlers"

"Hustlers"

"Hustlers"

A "Storybook Life" is a collection of 70 works, made over 20 years that was never intended to become a series yet the way the images have been edited and sequenced suggests interconnected lives and stories.

"Storybook life"

"Storybook life"

"Storybook life"

The "Heads" series captured people unaware on a New York sidewalk. Dicorcia shot in way that isolated the heads and shoulders of his carefully selected subjects. The resulting images show people engrossed in their own worlds, leaving the viewer to ponder what is going through the subjects mind.

"Heads"

"Heads"

"Streetwork" was a series that came prior to heads and also photographed people unaware, using elaborate but unobtrusive lighting. These images differ from the "Heads" series in their broader view, more information is captured within the frame.

"Streetwork"

"Streetwork"

 Travel

I find DiCorcias travel photography very beautiful and the selected images below have an almost painterly feel to them.

Editorial

 

Advertising

  After all the research I have done to date on DiCorcia, I have grown to further apprerciate a photographer that I had an interest in already. I feel inspired by his work, his diversity within photography is amazing and I am yet to look at an image that I do not like! I could not have been happier with my given photographer for this assignment!