Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers are pleased to present early works from the
Family and Friends series by Philip-Lorca diCorcia.
The New York artist Philip-Lorca diCorcia takes photographs that operate between
the documentary tradition and the staged superficial images of film and
advertising.
In the late 1970s diCorcia began his series Family and Friends, taking
photographs of friends and family members in deliberately staged settings and
poses. He shows these people in seemingly banal everyday situations that on one
level make the photos look like snapshots. Scenes like these are familiar, and
yet it is hard to turn away from the pictures. The staging is so accomplished
and finely planned, right down to the last detail, that it compels us to linger,
and to consider the emotional and psychological meaning behind what seems to be
just everyday.
Typically for diCorcia’s work, a combination of natural and strategically
employed artificial light lends the photos a remarkable sense of theatre. The
light seems to lift the subject of the photo to a plane beyond the everyday
situation. As it explores the surface of what is presented, it turns the scene
into a stage, resembling a film still that the viewer can only really understand
in terms of the whole plot – only there is no such plot.
The protagonists of these pictures seem caught in a freeze-frame, and the world
around them has come to a standstill. A familiar situation suddenly appears
unreal, because the artist has somehow stopped time and revealed the actual
complexity of the scene. We cannot help sensing that something special is
happening here, but what that might be remains obscure. This forces us to
develop narrative strategies that examine the limits of the frozen scenes and
attempt to come up with some kind of storyline. The way the scenes are staged
makes the action all the more direct and therefore also confronts us with their
banality, and with the private nature of the moment captured – and ultimately
with the ever-recurring moments of our own everyday lives. Philip-Lorca diCorcia
successfully stages the surface to guide our attention to what lies beneath it,
and we end up wondering about ourselves.
Born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut, diCorcia graduated from the Boston School
of the Museum of Fine Arts. He received his Master of Fine Arts in photography
at Yale University. From the late 1970s he has had numerous solo and group
shows, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Photographer’s
Gallery, London, and most recently the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, and
the Art Institute, Chicago. His works are included in many international
collections.
For further information please contact Julia Weiss:
[email protected]
Monika Sprueth Philomene Magers Munich
Schellingstrasse 48
80799 Munich
GERMANY
Tel. +49.89.33040600
Fax +49.89.397302
www.spruethmagers.com
