Philip-Lorca diCorcia, David Zwirner Gallery

The internationally acclaimed Philip-Lorca diCorcia is one of the world’s most revered contemporary photographers. This autumn, Mayfair’s David Zwirner Gallery plays host to his newest exhibition, East of Eden - a collection of large-scale photographic works which portray a fantastical and sinisterly beautiful earth which, in diCorcia’s eye, is falling from grace. 

East of Eden was inspired by the edge-of-the-precipice atmosphere that pervaded the year 2008, which saw the end of the Bush administration and the collapse of the western financial market. Taking the show’s title from John Steinbeck’s 1952 magnum opus, ‘PL’ (as he is internationally known) compares the socioeconomic turning point of 2008 to the Biblical Fall. The works depict ejection from a modern-day Garden of Eden, with twilit landscapes symbolising a world descending into disillusionment. “Twilight,” as diCordia has stated in the past, “is a muddled form of clarity…and provides the rose-coloured glasses.”

diCordia’s  early experiences as a fashion photographer in the mid-90s shine through in this exhibition. His photographic portraits of San Joaquin Valley, California (2008) and the family home of Lynn and Shirley (2008) fuse the high drama and polished aesthetics of editorial fashion shoots with the candour of street photojournalism. Think: the theatricality of Caravaggio meets the urban romanticism of Edward Hopper.

For a bit of background, check out his series Hustlers (1990-1992), which portrays a set of male prostitutes working in Los Angeles, captured in the course of five separate trips to Santa Monica. Each portrait is captioned with the name of the sitter and his price per customer, and the grim honesty of this collection is offset by the startling beauty of the individual portraits. It’s a typically diCordian paradox. 

FREE

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