Philip-Lorca di Corcia: Photographs 1975-2003
21 January - 4 April 2005
Opening: 20 January 2005 at 6:30 pm
Galleria di Piazza San Marco
71/C Venezia, Italy
Opening hours: 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm, closed Tuesdays
bevilacqualamasa.it
The Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation is pleased to present a solo exhibition of the American artist Philip-Lorca di Corcia, with the inauguration taking place in Venice on Thursday the 20th of January, 2005. The exhibition, curated by Filippo Maggia, has been produced in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
The exhibition is the first major retrospective of the work of one of the most exemplary photographers of our time. Philip-Lorca di Corcia, born in 1953 in Hartford, Connecticut, received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1975 and a Post Graduate Certificate from the same institution the following year. In 1979 he received a Master Degree in Photography from Yale University where he has also taught as visiting professor in recent years. He presently lives and works in New York City.
The work of Philip-Lorca di Corcia is a valid example of the continuity – both in style and subject matter – found in what has been defined for over a century as street photography, an approach also evident in the work of great photographers such as Robert Frank, William Egglestone, Lee Friedlander and Robert Adams – to name just a few.
Philip-Lorca di Corcia can be associated with that type of photography that forays into the human psyche from the portrayal of the alienation of the individual in the crowd, to the constant need for affirmation and acknowledgement of the self. Photography which in the first part of the 20th century characterized the work of Walker Evans (Subway Portraits series, 1938 1941) and later which inspired photographers of the 70s like Garry Winogrand (Women are Beautiful series).
The main section of the exhibition is dedicated to the series entitled A Storybook Life, an account of twenty-five years of the artists private life. By private we intend all things associated with the professional career of the artist, as well as the contributions he has made, both in the form of experience and stylistic maturity, to American photography. The seventy-six photographs on display (taken between 1975 and 1999) are depictions of friends, family, travels and cities, and touch upon such themes as happiness, sorrow, surprise, enchantment, and the beautiful/ugly sides of life. Philip-Lorca di Corcia has masterly applied such themes and elements in his serial work, spanning from the late 1980s until today, a perfect example of which is the series entitled Hustlers (1990-1992) which potrays street youth in Hollywood, California.
In the series Streetwork (1993-1998) and Two Hours (1999) the artist uses strobe lights to illuminate and photograph passers-by on the streets of various European and American cities. By isolating a single individual, or group of individuals, from the throng of pedestrians, he forces them to become participants in the present. This effect is brought to further extremes in the recent collection entitled Heads, where relentless and impersonal activities of urban life are depicted, with emphasis on the various roles in which city dwellers unconsciously partake.
Information: Press Office, Giorgia Gallina,
+339.041.5207797
press@bevilacqualamasa.it