17 March 2014

Philip-Lorca diCorcia has always photographed fragments of real life: streets, bedrooms, nightclubs, motels. His scenes are steeped in the same hyperrealism as Jeff Wall’s tableaux, dilated instants that look as authentic as they are impossible to capture: the perfect light, gestures and expressions that seem as if they are drawn or sculpted. In this exhibition, the first major retrospective of his work to be held in the United Kingdom, the whole catalogue of subjects he has explored over the course of some forty years is covered, with over 100 pictures on display. The staged photography of Philip-Lorca diCorcia does not make the surrounding world disappear in order to create another. It is embedded in the very places that he wants to reinvent, illuminating unwitting passersby with concealed flashes or transforming a group of pole dancers into a sequence of statues in chiaroscuro, as if he wished to compose an endless storyboard that would be able to gather all the stories we have seen or read on those streets, in those places and on those faces.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Photographs 1975-2012
The Hepworth Wakefield
Wakefield, West Yorkshire (UK)
February 14-June 1, 2014

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Lynn and Shirley, 2008.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Tokyo, 1998.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Chris, 28 years old, Los Angeles, California, $30, 1990-92.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Head 24, 2001.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Roy, “in his twenties”, Los Angeles, California, $30, 1990–92.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Ralph Smith, 21 years old, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 25, 1990–2.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, New York City (Bruce and Ronnie, 1982), 1983.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, DeBruce, 1999.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Hannah, 2004.