PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA "A STORYBOOK LIFE"
18 SEPTEMBER –12 DECEMBER 2004

Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Born 1953, lives and works in New York.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia's photography blends traditional documentary photography with fiction, cinema and advertising photography. The exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall features three series, where the oldest work dates back to 1975, and the newest is from 2001.

The exhibition consists primarily of A Storybook Life, 76 photos from 1975-1999. Through the lens of his camera, diCorcia has portrayed the American suburbs - a world of TV, cigarettes and lawnmowers. The photos in the series give the impression of being spontaneous documentary shots of his family and friends, but are in fact meticulously staged. The details are scrupulously arranged and add to the specific atmosphere diCorcia intends to convey with each separate photograph. The person in the picture rarely meets the viewer's eye, giving a voyeuristic sensation. The succession of images is compact, like scenes from a film, or pages from a book. diCorcia himself compares the composition of his narratives with the workings of memory: "overlapped in ways that are not rational".

Two Hours (1999) consists of eleven pictures shot from the same vantage point in a street in Havana, Cuba, where diCorcia lets the surroundings form a backdrop to the action during two hours. Glances exchanged between people and the atmosphere of the place are central elements. The people are portrayed up close, giving the viewer a feeling of being there and almost colliding with the person ahead. The street pulse and the flow of the crowd is further enhanced when all the pictures are lined up next to one another.

Several works are from one of diCorcia's most famous series, Heads (2000). This series can be seen as an elaboration on Streetwork, diCorcia's photographs from street life in eight large American, European and Asian cities in 1996-98. However, whereas Streetwork captured everyday scenes with the city as the setting, he has toned down the impact of the surroundings in Heads, focusing for a moment on the anonymous individual in the crowd. From a scaffolding near Times Square in New York, diCorcia arranged lighting to be aimed at individual passers-by or small groups of people, who were unaware of his presence. The background and surroundings are blotted out, while the individuals themselves stand out. They are captured in a private moment, in their own world, as the city pulse and bustle is filtered away. This combination of spontaneity and arrangement resulted in overwhelmingly simple and direct images.

Last spring, diCorcia participated in the exhibition Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He will also be featured at the Fashination exhibition, opening at Moderna Museet on 25 September, 2004. A Storybook Life was produced jointly by Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, in cooperation with Centre national de la photographie, Paris, Folkwang Museum, Essen, Centro de Arte de Salamanca and Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra.

Exhibition catalogue A Storybook Life. ISBN 1-931885-23-0
75 ill. in colour, 36,7 x 28,5 cm, hard cover.
Published 2003 by Twin Palms Publisher, Santa Fe. www.twinpalms.com

Exhibition catalogue heads. ISBN 3882434414
40 pages,13 ill. in colour, 37,5 x 30 cm, hardcover. Text by Luc Sante. Only in English
Published 2001 by SteidlBoxPacemacgill in conjunction with the exhibition PaceWildenstein Chelsea, New York in 2001.

The Planets by Luc Sante

In these photographs the air is black, but not because it is night. The hour does not matter. The isolated subjects are mantled by a light that comes from above, but it is not a stage light. They are not performing; they are unaware of the light. They are illuminated at that instant because they have been selected. They may have been selected the way bugs are, to represent their genus or phylum in a display case, but it seems more likely that they have been chosen to stand for themselves, in all their exquisite specificity. The entity or agency that has selected them is cool, impartial, formidable, although perhaps not entirely unsympathetic - we can't know for sure.

Each subject has been ordered, by this huge and unknowable agency, to account for his life. Each one is unsettled by the demand, whose origin is a mystery. All they know is that they were walking down the street, heading to a job or a meal or nowhere in particular, and then suddenly the question struck, like lightning or embolism. They continue what they were doing, but time has stopped for them. Each one is momentarily alone in the cosmos. They are judging, measuring, painfully remembering, finding themselves come up short again and again, trying and failing to close the drawers, to shut the doors, to think of something else. They have no idea that the inspection is not a private matter. They do not know that they are exposed, as it were, on a laboratory slide, and lit up by the bulb of a vast and incomprehensible microscope. (...)

Excerpt from the catalogue text "The Planets" by Luc Sante from the catalogue "heads" published in conjunction with the exhibition at PaceWildenstein Chelsea, New York in 2001.

"A Storybook Life"

Ventura, 1991
Hartford, 1979
Singapore, 1993
Hartford, 1980
Oklahoma City, 1999
New York City, 1983
DeBruce, 1999
New York City, 1984
New York City, 1985
Truro, 1988
Salonika, 1980
Los Angeles, 1981
Norfolk, 1979
Willowemoc, 1988
Tokyo, 1993
New Haven, 1978
Laguiole, 1992
Los Angeles, 1990
Los Angeles, 1997
Willowemoc, 1987
New Haven, 1979
Naples, 1994
Kansas City, 1980
Singapore, 1993
Hartford, 1978
Quarzazte, 1991
Wellfleet, 1992
Los Angeles, 1980
Atlantic Ocean, 1975
Singapore, 1993
Skopelos, 1993
Wellington, 1996
Los Angeles, 1980
Bethel, 1992
Long Beach, 1980
Wellfleet, 1993
Hartford, 1977
Berlin, 1991
Hartford, 1980
Hartford, 1980
Kent, 1979
Skopelos, 1994
Cairo, 1988
Wellfleet, 1993
Los Angeles, 1997
Hartford, 1979
Salonika, 1980
New Haven, 1978
Naples, 1995
Hartford, 1978
New York City, 1982
New York City, 1999
Formentera, 1994
Ventura, 1991
Los Angeles, 1990
Los Angeles, 1997
New York City, 1989
Coney Island, 1994
Los Angeles, 1992
Naples, 1995
Paris, 1998
Milan, 1985
Los Angeles, 1981
Los Angeles, 1981
Naples, 1995
New York City, 1996
DeBruce, 1999
Berlin, 1997
New York City, 1996
New York City, 1984
Antipaxos, 1980
Wellfleet, 1993
Tehran, 1995
Hartford, 1978
Hartford, 1989
Hartford, 1980

All of the works are C-prints, 40,5 x 51 cm

"Heads"

Head #01, 2000
Head #07, 2000
Head #11, 2000
Head #13, 2000
Head #20, 2000
Head #23, 2000

All of the works are C-prints, 122 x 152,5 cm

"Two Hours"

Havana, 1999 (all 11 works)

All of the works are C-prints, 81 x 115 cm

ARTIST TALK
in collaboration with Xposeptember 2004

Philip-Lorca diCorcia talks with David Neuman, director Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
Wednesday September 15 at 6 pm, Kulturhuset, Studio 3, Stockholm.
In English. Free entrance

Magasin 3 audio guide

duration 11 mins, in English

© Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2006

Download the programme and listen to the artist Fabice Gygi talk about his artistry and works. Fabrice Gygi guides us round the exhibition at Magasin 3, and talks about his works. He mentions "Tente Bar" (1997) and "Sound system sur chariot" (1997), then he moves on to "Local de vote" (2001), "Airbag Generation Yellow" (2001), "Cross Blocks" (2001), "Mine" (2003) and "Plafonnier" (2003), "Vigie" (2002,), "Gentleman's Agreement" - a performance (2002) and finally, his new works "Aquarium" and "Chèvre", created for the exhibition at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall.

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