CELEBRITIES
Proposed cover image: Oscars 2002 Larry is currently working on a book comprised of selections from over 10 years of images documenting celebrities. The publisher will be the historically important Schirmer/Mosel.
Originally conceived of as a book solely about the Oscars, the project has branched out to cover celebrities in general.
Larry is known for his sociological exposes of wealth and power (Social Graces).
This new project is of a similar vein. The key difference is that it points to the fact that being wealthy is not the same as being a celebrity. Social Graces portrays an anonymous world of wealth. The figures are unknown to us and therefore easier to criticize, a more abstract representation of class. The figures in Social Graces (the wealthy not the poor) coalesce into a mass; whereas the figures of this new project remain individuals by virtue of their notoriety.
This factor of recognition is perhaps the most important part of the new book. When people look through it they are likely to say, 'hey, I know that person.' Celebrities are familiar to us, we like them, we hate them, we have opinions of their lives and actions about which we might know more than our own neighbors. This recognition complicates the photographs critique of wealth by drawing attention to own participation and complicity with the social systems which have produced such celebrated people.
The funny thing about all this is that Larry often does not even know which star is which. The pictures are picked for their structure and how they impact a certain inner-energy, which is discovered by the instantaneous transference of searching for fire in a darkened room, not the celebrity.
As the book is still untitled, we are announcing an informal blog competition -a "blog-etition" as Larry likes to call it- soliciting your suggestions for what to name the book.
Here is a sneak preview:
Originally conceived of as a book solely about the Oscars, the project has branched out to cover celebrities in general.
Larry is known for his sociological exposes of wealth and power (Social Graces).
This new project is of a similar vein. The key difference is that it points to the fact that being wealthy is not the same as being a celebrity. Social Graces portrays an anonymous world of wealth. The figures are unknown to us and therefore easier to criticize, a more abstract representation of class. The figures in Social Graces (the wealthy not the poor) coalesce into a mass; whereas the figures of this new project remain individuals by virtue of their notoriety.
This factor of recognition is perhaps the most important part of the new book. When people look through it they are likely to say, 'hey, I know that person.' Celebrities are familiar to us, we like them, we hate them, we have opinions of their lives and actions about which we might know more than our own neighbors. This recognition complicates the photographs critique of wealth by drawing attention to own participation and complicity with the social systems which have produced such celebrated people.
The funny thing about all this is that Larry often does not even know which star is which. The pictures are picked for their structure and how they impact a certain inner-energy, which is discovered by the instantaneous transference of searching for fire in a darkened room, not the celebrity.
As the book is still untitled, we are announcing an informal blog competition -a "blog-etition" as Larry likes to call it- soliciting your suggestions for what to name the book.
Here is a sneak preview:
Kate Winslet, Oscars 2009
Donatella Versace
David Duchovny, 3/97
Elton John & David Furnish, Oscars 2009
Mitch Glazer & Kelly Lynch, Oscars 2009
"Over Exposed" or "Over Exposure" is my vote for a book title. Looking forward to this book.
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