Before W became just another celebrity glorifying rag, the magazine used to regularly feature lush, evocative, edgy photo spreads shot by top art and fashion photographers. David Zwirner's 519 West 19th space currently has on view selected works culled from eleven editorial projects created by Philip-Lorca diCorcia for W between 1997-2008. Eleven is diCorcia's first exhibit in New York focusing exclusively on the renowned photographer's fashion work.
Along with W's former creative director Dennis Freedman, "diCorcia traveled to distinct locations around the world" including Cairo, Havana, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, Paris, Los Angles, New York, "to produce his photographic essays" (from the press release) featuring some of the coolest models of yesteryear (Kristen McMenamy, Nadja Auermann, Guinevere van Seenus, Erin O'Connor) posing alongside natives of the environs. The "images weave together richly loaded narratives with a stylist's selection of designer-brand clothes," however they interestingly often "appear far removed from the fashion industry's traditional emphasis on formulaic beauty and harmony, and instead involve a delicate balance between glamour and grit, imagination and irony."
Though cinematic, diCorcia shies away from revealing "[A]n explicit plot" in his mysterious and often tense photographs. The artist's series are "ripe with ambiguous meanings and loaded connotations as characters appear and re-appear in a myriad of settings." Why do models McMenamy and O'Connor appear to be having breakdowns in the Lost Angeles series? What the heck is Auermann doing cradling a rooster in the middle of a cockfight ring in the Bangkok series? Why is designer Marc Jacobs giving bitch face to a shady-looking male figure asleep in his bed in the Paris series? And why is a bride decorating a banquet hall all by her lonesome in the Sao Paulo series? Perhaps answers to these inquiries can be uncovered in the exhibit's accompanying book edited by Freedman and featuring each of the eleven series in their entirety.
Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1951, the New York-based diCorcia has been creating innovative photographs for over 30 years. His compelling works in Eleven feature seductively cryptic, sleek, surreal imagery that beautifully and tenuously straddle the line between "documentation and fiction," reality and fantasy. Learn more at Davidzwirner.com. Through March 5th.
W, May 2008, #15, 2008, Series: 1.Cairo, 2008
W, March 2000, #13, 2000, Series: 7.Havana, 2000 (titled Cuba Libre)
W, March 2000, #3, 2000, Series: 7.Havana 2000 (titled Cuba Libre)
W, September 2001, #6, 2001, Series: 5.Bangkok 2001
W, September 1997, #2, 1997, Series: 11.Los Angeles 1997 (titled Lost Angeles)
W, November 2003, #12, 2003, Series: 3.Sao Paulo 2003
W, September 2001, #4, 2001, Series: 5.Bangkok 2001
W, September 1997, #9, 1997, Series: 11.Los Angeles 1997 (titled Lost Angeles)
W, November 2007, #6, 2007, Series: 10.Paris 2007 (titled Marc Jacobs)
W, May 2008, #3, 2008, Series: 1.Cairo 2008
W, September 1997, #5, 1997, Series: 11.Los Angeles 1997 (titled Lost Angeles)
W, September 2001, #1, 2001, Series: 5.Bangkok 2001
W, March 2000, #10, 2000, Series: 7.Havana 2000 (titled Cuba Libre)
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