Alex Prager
Alex Prager is an American photographer who creates tableaus with a cinematic feel based around extravagantly constructed mise en scène.
Born in 1979, she is based in Los Angeles; the city and its film industry heavily influence’s her work. Her images are formed of intricately designed sets often filled with actors, models and film extras, carefully organised by her to create fictive realities. These realities, often stylistically in the form of previous era’s such as the sixties and seventies. Maybe they could even be said to resemble colour film noir stills. The images often feature their solo protagonists in heightened states of mental duress or tension, sometimes paying homage to films or directors such as Alfred Hitchcock as with the image below and its resemblance to a scene from The Birds.
Fig.1. The Big Valley, Eve (2008)
When not under tension the protagonists could be said to appear in states of melancholy or confusion. With the images featuring solo characters I feel as though there is more to their story, I wish to know what they were doing in the moments before and after the shutter was released; there is a question unanswered.
Fig.2. The Big Valley, Cindy (2008)
I see her larger tableaus as taking two separate styles; images containing scenes of the everyday and more fantastical compositions with elements of the surreal. The first tableaus often take place in bus queues and inside cinemas, with people going about their business independently of each other, with the added punctum of one character drawing the eye. Often this comes about because whereas characters around them are busy performing some realm of normality, the character that draws our attention is either looking at the viewer or staring off into the distance in a state of deep thought. Sometimes they are carrying on similarly to other characters and it’s down to the photographers framing and use of colour that draws our attention.
Fig.3. The Long Weekend, Crowd#1 (Stan Douglas), (2010)
I can definitely see within her work an homage to her earliest and greatest influence, William Eggleston. The use of colour is startlingly similar. That, and the fact that her images are stylised of the periods that he is particularly associated with. Other influences such as, Martin Parr, Diane Arbus and Weegee are apparent.
There is a lot I can take from viewing Alex’s work in terms of helping shape my thoughts and style in regard to my constructed portrait
Bibliography
Alex Prager Studio. 2020. Alex Prager Studio. [online] Available at: <https://www.alexprager.com> [Accessed 11 May 2020].
En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Alex Prager. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Prager> [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Itsnicethat.com. 2020. How Alex Prager Made The World Stop And Stare. [online] Available at: <https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/alex-prager-silver-lake-drive-the-photographers-gallery-photography-190618> [Accessed 11 May 2020].
Context and Narrative 