Alex Prager

14 NOVEMBER 2014 – 19 APRIL 2015

National Gallery of Victoria
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road
Contemporary Art & Design
Level 3

Alex Prager is an American photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. In her elaborately conceived staged photographs, Prager openly references the aesthetics of mid-twentieth-century American cinema and photography. Each of her lush colour images resembles a film still – entirely constructed and packed with emotion and human melodrama. In her film work she extends on her photographic practice, moving from the directorial mode in photography to directing an elaborately constructed film. Both aspects of her practice pair the banal and fantastic, the everyday and the theatrical, real life and cinematic representation in lush, richly coloured tableaux. This ebook has been developed for Alex Prager's first solo exhibition in Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Exhibition curated by Susan van Wyk, Senior Curator, Photography and Maggie Finch, Curator, Photography

Alex Prager
American 1979–

Julie 2007
type C photograph
91.4 x 120.7 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

Eve 2008
type C photograph
91.4 x 114.3 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong
 
Kimberly 2008
type C photograph
121.9 x 162.6 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

Cathy 2009
type C photograph
61.0 x 80.0 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong
 
Maggie 2009
type C photograph
61.0 x 97.0 cm (framed)
Collection of Dr Clinton Ng, Sydney
 
Molly 2009
type C photograph
91.4 x 121.9 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

Despair 2010
colour high definition digital video, sound, 4 min 26 sec
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles
 
Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles
 
Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles
 
Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles

Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles
 
Film still 2010
from the Despair series 2010
pigment print
40.6 x 50.8 cm
Collection of Jeff Vespa, Los Angeles
 
Irene 2010
type C photograph
121.9 x 177.8 cm
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong
 
Sunday 2010
colour digital video, sound, 1 min 9 sec
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

Crowd #2 (Emma) 2012
pigment print
142.0 x 151.0 cm
Collection of Dr Clinton Ng, Sydney

La petite mort 2012
colour high definition digital video, sound, 7 min 2 sec
Collection of the artist, Los Angeles and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

La petite mort #4 2012
pigment print
33.0 x 63.0 cm (framed)
Collection of Dr Clinton Ng, Sydney
 
La petite mort #5 2012
pigment print
33.0 x 63.0 cm (framed)
Collection of Dr Clinton Ng, Sydney
 
La petite mort #6 2012
pigment print
33.0 x 63.0 cm (framed)
Collection of Dr Clinton Ng, Sydney
 
3:32pm Coldwater Canyon and Eye #5 2012
pigment print
(a) 121.9 x 82.8 cm; (b) 50.8 x 58.4 cm
Collection of Cathy and Jonathan Miller, New York

7:12pm Redcliff Ave and Eye #10 2012
pigment print
(a) 121.9 x 50.0 cm; (b) 50.8 x 58.4 cm
Collection of Cathy and Jonathan Miller, New York

Crowd #9 (Sunset Five) 2013
pigment print
153.7 x 235.4 cm
National Gallery of Victoria
Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography, 2014

Crowd #11 (Cedar and Broad Street) 2013
pigment print
153.7 x 146.1 cm
National Gallery of Victoria
Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography, 2014

Face in the Crowd 2013
three-channel colour digital video projection, sound, 11 min 52 sec, ed. 1/3
National Gallery of Victoria
Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography, 2014

Alex Prager is a self-taught photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. She is known for intricately staged works that draw on the drama of mid-century Hollywood films to explore uncanny elements of individual and social experience. The aesthetics of her photographs are frequently inspired by the city of Los Angeles, particularly its light, which she describes as ‘so specific … warm, and mixed with all the smog’,¹ and Prager often speaks of the influence her unconventional upbringing has had on her remarkable self-made practice.

Prager was born in Los Angeles in 1979 and from a young age wanted to be an actress, singer and dancer. She found work as a child actor in a number of commercials, films, plays and television shows before abandoning this pursuit in her early teens.² At the age of thirteen, after moving to Florida with her family, Prager dropped out of high school and moved to Switzerland with a friend, where she worked in a knife shop owned by her friend’s grandmother.³ Prager spent most of her time as a teenager between Los Angeles, Florida, Lucerne in Switzerland and travelling around Europe. She explains:

Skipping high school just kind of happened. We didn’t plan it. I was going to start after my summer break in Los Angeles when my parents decided to move to Florida. I went along with them to see what Florida was like, and I ended up in Switzerland … I think missing high school may have made me a better photographer in the sense that I never really had a plan except my own … [My family] really made it clear to me that my life was my own … I guess all the travel kind of trained me to trust myself.⁴

By her early twenties, inspired by the colour photography of William Eggleston exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, in 1999–2000, Prager resolved to teach herself photography and bought her first camera – a second-hand Nikon N90-S – and darkroom equipment from eBay.⁵ Six months later she had her first exhibition, held in a hair salon. The success of the display of the only colour photograph in that exhibition inspired Prager to work with colour photography from that point onwards.⁶

One of Prager’s first official exhibitions was a group show, Special Friend, at New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, in 2002. Prager was one of nine photographers included in the exhibition who displayed ‘biographical photographs and personal observations of urban and suburban life’.⁷ During this time, to support herself as an artist, Prager began shooting fashion editorials for various magazines in Los Angeles, and she has since worked for publications such as Vogue and W Magazine.⁸

Prager’s work started to gain attention with her first solo exhibition, Polyester, at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, in 2007, which was reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. This body of work utilises models wearing 1950s-inspired wigs to create highly constructed narratives, depicting glamorous women against mysterious cinematic backgrounds – aesthetics which have since become characteristic of Prager’s photographic practice. Her following exhibition, The Big Valley, was exhibited by Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, in 2008 and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, in 2009. In 2010 Prager exhibited Week-end at Michael Hoppen Gallery, which included her first film work, entitled Despair. As Prager commented, ‘The idea behind [Despair] is that I wanted to bring one of my photographs to life for a few minutes’.⁹

The same year Prager was selected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, to be part of the group show New Photography, and she has since been included in numerous group shows, including At the Window: The Photographer’s View at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2013, and Reflected: Works from the Foam Collection at Foam Museum, Amsterdam, in 2014. Prager’s first large-scale museum exhibition was Compulsion at Foam Museum in 2012, and her latest solo show, Face in the Crowd, at Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 2013–14, was her first large-scale exhibition in the United States.

Prager’s work has been featured in publications including the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, W Magazine, and Art in America. The New York Times Magazine also commissioned a short film by Prager, entitled Touch of Evil, starring celebrity icons such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Kirsten Dunst, which won a 2012 Emmy Award. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Kunsthaus, Zurich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Cincinnati Art Museum; Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Michelle Mountain is an intern with the Photography Department at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Art Daily, ‘Alex Prager’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. opens at the Corcoran Gallery of Art’, 21 Nov. 2013

Babej, Marc Erwin, ‘Interview: Alex Prager’s nod to the golden age of film’, American Photo, 22 May 2014 

Baumgardner, Julie, ‘Portfolio: Alex Prager’, Modern Painters, Dec. 2013, pp. 37–8.

[Bloom, Julie, ‘Girls on film’, New York Times, 21 Jan. 2010, available at Alex Prager – Photography & Films](http://www.alexprager.com/cms/content/press/13.Press-13/2010_jan_new_york-times.jpg](http://www.alexprager.com/cms/content/press/13.Press-13/2010_jan_new_york-times.jpg)

Bodin, Claudia, ‘Eggleston’s Heirs’, Art Das Kunstmagazin, Jul. 2010

Bonanos, Christopher, ‘God only knows’, New York Magazine, 8 Feb. 2010, p. 73.

Booher, Kaitlin, ‘Crowd source: scenes by Alex Prager’, Face in the Crowd: Alex Prager, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 2014.

[Brosnan, Gemma, ‘Interview: Alex Prager brings retro-modern Women to Life’, Unshredded Magazine, 14 Oct. 2010](http://www.unshredded.net/art/interview-alex-prager-brings-retro-modern-women-to-life.html](http://www.unshredded.net/art/interview-alex-prager-brings-retro-modern-women-to-life.html)

Camhi, Leslie, ‘L.A. noir: Alex Prager’s ‘Compulsion’ opens in New York, London and Los Angeles’, Vogue, 28 Mar. 2012

Christiansen, Dan, ‘Alex Prager’, Living Proof Magazine, Dec. 2009, pp. 27–33.

Colbert, Jorg, ‘Compulsion: eye and artifice’,” Foam Magazine, Summer 2012, pp. 165–8.

Conway, Megan, ‘The new imagist’, Black Book Magazine, Dec./Jan. 2010, p. 47.

Dambrot, Shana Nys, ‘I’m every woman’, LA Weekly, 26 Jul. 2011

Davidson, Barbara, ‘In Conversation with Alex Prager’, Los Angeles Times, 2 Aug. 2012

Distin, Sara, ‘Staging reality: Alex Prager’s timeless faces in the crowd,' TIME Light Box, 19 Nov. 2013

Elist, Jasmine, ‘Subliminal Projects Gallery’s “Eve” is all about female creation’, Los Angeles Times, 28 Jul. 2011

Finel Honigman, Ana, ‘Woman on the rise: Alex Prager’, Net-A-Porter, Spring 2014, p. 106.

Frank, Peter, ‘Review: Alex Prager’s Compulsion’, Huffington Post, 8 Jun. 2012, available at M+B

Frank, Priscilla, ‘A behind the scenes exclusive of Alex Prager’s upcoming exhibition “Compulsion”’, Huffington Post, 29 Feb. 2012

——, ‘Alex Prager photographs the dark underbelly of crowds’, Huffington Post, 16 Dec. 2013

Gelt, Jessica, ‘Beauty before age’, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2007, available at Alex Prager – Photography & Films

Herndon, Jessica, ‘Alex Prager is photography’s Queen Voyeur,” LA Weekly, 19 Apr. 2012

Homes, A. M., ‘Uneasy pieces’, Vanity Fair, Sep. 2010, p. 315.

Hudson, Mark, ‘Alex Prager: photography’s heir to Hitchcock’, Telegraph, 20 Apr. 2012

Hyland, Veronique & Amanda FitzSimons, ‘Creative license’, Elle Magazine, Dec. 2012, p. 129.

Jacques, Adam, ‘Portfolio: Alex Prager’, Independent, 22 Apr. 2012.

Johnson, Ken, ‘AIPAD photography show New York’, 19 Mar. 2010, New York Times.

Kelsey, Colleen, ‘Alex Prager crowdsourced’, Interview Magazine, 10 Jan. 2014.

Kunsthalle Vienna, No Fashion, Please!: Photography between Gender and Lifestyle, Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, Nürnberg, 2011.

Laurent, Olivier & Diane Smyth, ‘Alex Prager wins Foam Paul Huf Award’, British Journal of Photography, Nov. 2013, pp. 58–65.

Laster, Paul, ‘Alex Prager: Face in the Crowd’, Time Out New York, 28 Jan. 2014.

Lescaze, Zoe, ‘Photographer Alex Prager joins Lehmann Maupin’, GalleristNY, 17 Sep. 2013.

Lindholm, Erin, ‘Alex Prager’s girls on film’, Art in America, 21 Jan. 2010.

McManus, Austin, ‘Alex Prager: the new vision of cinematic photography’, Juxtapoz, Nov. 2013, pp. 24–9. 

Maxwell, Clayton, ‘Meeting with Alex Prager’, Eyemazing Magazine, May 2008, pp. 96–102.

Olda, Danny, ‘Cinematic photographs of turn-for-the-worst moments by Alex Prager’, Beautiful Decay, 8 May 2013.

O’Neill, Claire, ‘Out with the old and in with the old-inspired: fresh photos at MoMA’, NPR, 26 Aug. 2010.

Padley, Gemma, ‘Safety in numbers’, British Journal of Photography, Nov. 2013, pp. 58–65.

Piatti, Elixabetta, ‘Alex Prager’, Zoom, Jan. 2010, pp. 50–1.

Pistor, Rahne, ‘Flaunting her cinematic style’, The Argonaut, 26 April 2007, p. 17.

Pitman, Joanna, ‘Valley of the dolls’, Times, 3 May 2008, p. 50.

R. C., ‘New Photography 2010’, Art Newspaper, Sep. 2010, p.68.

Smith, Roberta, ‘Alex Prager: “Face in the Crowd”’, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2014.

Smyth, Diane, ‘Fashion Restyled’, The British Journal of Photography, Sep. 2010, pp. 41–3.

Swanson, Carl, ‘Can’t look away’, New York Magazine, Apr. 2012.

Tung, Tommy, ‘Alex Prager enjoys a month long week-end’, Juxtapoz, 17 Nov. 2009.

VanZanten, Virginia, ‘Alex Prager’s Compulsion’, W Magazine, Mar. 2012.

Vesilind, Emili, ‘Alex Prager on art exhibit, foray into films’, LA Confidential, 14 May 2012.

Vogel, Carol, ‘New Photography 2010 Coming to MoMA’, New York Times, 29 July 2010.

Weaver, Cat, ‘Alex Prager: where we went from there’, Huffington Post, 25 Sep. 2010.

Wilkinson, Isabel, ‘Alex Prager’s lonely, haunting “Face in the Crowd”’, The Cut, 27 Nov. 2013.

Wolff, Rachel, ‘50 under 50: the next most collectible artists’, Art + Auction, Jun. 2013, p. 130.

——, ‘The living dollhouse’, The Daily Beast, 14 Jan. 2010.

Zafiris, Alex, ‘For Alex Prager, it’s Lonely in a Crowd’, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, 10 Jan. 2014. 

First published in 2014 by
the Council of Trustees of
the National Gallery of Victoria
180 St Kilda Road
Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia
www.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2014

All works by Alex Prager reproduced in this publication are © Alex Prager, courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong

Published for the exhibition Alex Prager, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, 14 November 2014 – 19 April 2015.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Creator:

Prager, Alex, 1979- photographer, film maker.

<dt>Title:</dt>
<dd>Alex Prager / Maggie Finch.</dd>

<dt>ISBN:</dt>
<dd>9780724103980 (ebook)</dd>

<dt>Subjects:</dt>
<dd>Prager, Alex, 1979‒Exhibitions.<br/>
National Gallery of Victoria‒Exhibitions.<br/>
Photography, Artistic‒Exhibitions.<br/>
Motion pictures‒Exhibitions.<br/>
Photographers‒United States-Exhibitions.<br/>
Independent filmmakers‒United States‒Exhibitions.</dd>

<dt>Other Creators/Contributors:</dt>
<dd>Finch, Maggie, author.<br/>
National Gallery of Victoria, issuing body.</dd>

<dt>Dewey Number:</dt>
<dd>770.092</dd>

Publications Manager: Jasmin Chua
Text editor: Mark Gomes
Design and ebook development: Rowan McNaught
Senior Publications Coordinator: Jennie Moloney
Proofreader: Nikki Lusk

The National Gallery of Victoria would like to acknowledge Alex Prager and her studio for their enthusiasm and generosity in assisting to bring this exhibition and ebook to life, as well as her dealer galleries Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong and M+B, Los Angeles. Several external loans have also been generously provided for this exhibition, and we would like to acknowledge the support of Cathy and Jonathan Miller, Dr Clinton Ng and Jeff Vespa; and for the support of key acquisitions of Alex Prager’s works into the NGV Collection, our thanks go to Bill Bowness and the Bowness Family Fund for Contemporary Photography.

The views expressed in this ebook are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher