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!