Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Gérald Hughes (a.k.a Savage Fantasy); about 25 years old; Southern California; $50

For this series, Philip-Lorca diCorcia walked along Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles in search of models who would be prepared to pose in hotel rooms according to pre-planned scenarios. The artist explained that: “I went back to the street just like the ordinary clients of these prostitutes. I went up to them and mentioned the following: ‘I would like to take a photo of you, I will pay you exactly what you are paid for a pass’”. Gerald Hughes (a.k.a. Savage Fantasy); about 25 years old; Southern California; $50: first name, surname, age, place, tariff. This descriptive title makes manifest the heightened awareness of the recording parameters and the nature of the photographic act. DiCorcia refers to Hollywood cinema in his choice of construction in planes. The composition – rather like a montage – creates an encounter between a prostitute and a TV presenter via interlocking frames (door, mirror, television, the framing of the photograph). The fixity of this face-to-face confronts intimate and social spheres. A certain engagement and a political dimension appear in the work, particularly if one takes into account that the series was executed with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in a context in which American politics were conservative. The artist constructs “a desperate fantasy of Hollywood world” (Peter Galassi) with this ‘hiatus’ image between dreamland and uncomfortable reality.