Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s photographs straddle truth and fiction by combining real people and places—but not necessarily people and places that naturally go together. The theatricality of his images is carefully constructed: he arranges the objects of each scene and devises precise lighting and framing for every project. His work is often described as cinematic, a description that diCorcia deplores. He insists that his pictures suggest rather than elucidate a full narrative. His brand of storytelling results in unstable, unfixed images that point in certain directions but never provide a definitive map.
His earliest work, from the late 1970s, featured his friends and family in scenes that evoke loneliness, contemplation, ennui, or, occasionally, humor. In Mario, diCorcia's brother stares into an open refrigerator, his late-night mission to unearth a snack infused with inertia. The photograph couples an impression of complete stillness with the eerie, seemingly contradictory sense of witnessing a fleeting moment. Peter Galassi, former chief curator of MoMA’s Department of Photography, described the production of this image: “The subject was utterly ordinary but the photograph was carefully planned. The camera was on a tripod and the lighting was supplemented by an electronic flash hidden in the refrigerator and triggered at the moment of exposure. DiCorcia leveled the camera, adjusted and readjusted the lighting, made several Polaroid test shots and more than a few exposures, each aiming at the envisioned result.”1 DiCorcia’s acute attention to detail has become the hallmark of his process and has influenced a generation of photographers (including Katy Grannan, Justine Kurland, Alex Prager, and Alec Soth, among others) who work with controlled situations and semi-anonymous portrait subjects.
DiCorcia did not set out to become a photographer. While attending the University of Hartford, he studied with Jan Groover, who planted the idea that a photograph is not necessarily an artifact documenting a specific sliver of time; rather, a photograph should result from careful planning and orchestration. Early- and mid-20th-century photographers who also took this approach include Paul Outerbridge, Philippe Halsman, and Bill Brandt. During his graduate studies at Yale University diCorcia begin to classify himself as a photographer by first determining the kind of image-maker he did not want to be. Garry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander, and Tod Papageorge—who rapidly shot many exposures in order to get to a few final images—attempted to capture the real world at a particular moment in time from a specific point of view. Their mid-20th-century work presented diCorcia with a strand of street photography to push against at exactly the same time that color processes began to be used outside of advertising and news photography. DiCorcia deliberately chose to print in color since it was an underutilized format in fine-art photography.
MoMA presented diCorcia’s first solo museum exhibition in 1993, featuring his series Hustlers, which was made in Los Angeles between 1990 and 1992. He photographed male prostitutes he approached on Santa Monica Boulevard, paying them whatever they typically charged for their services to instead pose in scenarios he had prepared for the photo sessions. The titles of these photographs, such as Eddie Anderson; 21 Years Old; Houston, Texas; $20, list only the facts. Yet by inserting their bodies into prepared scenes in hotel rooms or on the street, diCorcia made portraits that operate in tandem with—but do not exactly reproduce—the fantasy roles these men were usually conscripted to play.
Having worked outside on the Hustlers series, diCorcia delved further into street photography. As he explained, “The elements which call into question the normal relationship of appearance to truth in photography are, for most artists of my generation, tools to enrich the experience of work rather than ends in themselves.”2 Taking the work of Garry Winogrand in particular as a starting point, diCorcia reinvigorated the genre in the 1990s by freezing the ebb and flow of a city sidewalk in images such as Los Angeles and New York. By arranging flashes and stationing his camera at a precise location, he suspended slices of time in images that have the quiet stillness of Old Master paintings. For his series Streetwork (1993–97) and Heads (2000–01), he took thousands of photographs, of which he selected only a handful for inclusion. Unlike other practitioners of street photography, diCorcia never wanted his images to propagate a moral truth or instigate social change.
When John Szarkowski, former director of MoMA's Department of Photography, included the artist in the second iteration of the Museum’s New Photography exhibition series, in 1986, he wrote, “Philip-Lorca diCorcia involves us in the issues of story and plot by constructing tableaus that withhold information that we expect to be given.”3 DiCorcia’s photographs succeed because of his will to show more and tell less.
Introduction by Kelly Sidley, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography, 2016
Peter Galassi, “Photography Is a Foreign Language,” in Philip-Lorca diCorcia (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1995), 5.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia, “Reflections on Streetwork,” in Streetwork (Salamanca, Spain: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 1998), 11.
John Szarkowki, “New Photography 2: Mary Frey, David T. Hanson, Philip Lorca diCorcia,” MoMA 41 (Autumn 1986): 2.
- Introduction
- Philip-Lorca diCorcia (born 1951) is an American photographer. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Afterwards diCorcia attended Yale University, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1979. He now lives and works in New York City, and teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
- Wikidata
- Q1274009
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Photographer
- Names
- Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
- Ulan
- 500115594
Exhibitions
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The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook
Apr 16, 2012–Apr 21, 2013
MoMA
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Contemporary Collection
Nov 16, 2011–Feb 9, 2014
MoMA
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Photography Rotation 8
May 13, 2011–Mar 12, 2012
MoMA
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The Talent Show
Dec 12, 2010–Apr 4, 2011
MoMA PS1
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Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen
Sep 15, 2010–May 2, 2011
MoMA
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia has
22 exhibitionsonline.
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Mario 1978
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Mario 1981
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Catherine 1981
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Catherine 1981
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Mary and Babe 1982
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Bruce and Ronnie 1982
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Gianni 1984
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Francesco 1985
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Sergio and Totti 1985
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Fred 1986
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Igor 1987
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Auden 1988
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Brian 1988
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Madras 1988
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Noemi 1989
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Vittorio Scarpatti 1989
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Auden, Emma and Dogs 1989
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia David 1990
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Mink 1990
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Tim 1990
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia André Smith; 28 Years Old; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Eddie Anderson; 21 Years Old; Houston, Texas; $20 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Ike Cole; 38 Years Old; Los Angeles, California; $25 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Joe Whitman; 24 Years Old; Los Angeles, California ; $25 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Major Tom; Kansas City, Kansas; $20 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Marilyn; 28 Years Old; Las Vegas, Nevada; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Todd M. Brooks; 22 Years Old; Denver, Colorado; $40 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Brent Booth; 21 years old; Des Moines, Iowa; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia "Candy" Robert Randall; 25 years old; Lynwood, California; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia David Theodore Lane; 27 years old; Tuscon, Arizona; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Edward Earle Windsor; 20 years old; Atlanta, Georgia; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Joe Reeves; 37 years old; San Fernando, California; $40 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Ken Waters; 28 years old; Atlanta, Georgia; $30 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Kevin Gordon; 37 years old; Oakland, California; $40 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Mike Miller; 24 years old; Allentown, Pennsylvania; $25 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Ralph Smith; 21 years old; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; $25 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Robert "Sparky" Anderson; 47 years old; Detroit, Michigan; $25 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Roy; "in his twenties"; Los Angeles, California; $50 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Gerald Hughes (a.k.a. Savage Fantasy); about 27 years old; Southern California; $50 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia William Charles Everlove; 26 years old; Stockholm, Sweden via Arizona; $40 1990-92
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Bruno 1993
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Los Angeles 1993
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia New York 1993
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia New York 1993
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia New York 1994
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Rome 1995
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Hong Kong 1996
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia Paris 1996
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