Hustlers - Philip-Lorca diCorcia

This is another piece of work that Simon, my tutor, asked me to look at in my assignment 1 feedback. I've known about the work for a while and seen the odd image. I've requested the book via inter-library loan so that I can see it as intended in the correct sequence and format. But while I wait I thought I'd peruse the images online as well.

Hustlers is an intriguing project. diCorcia used the art grant that he'd been given to pay for prostitutes to use in his work. He'd scout a location like a street corner or a motel room as a backdrop and then ask the Hustlers to pose for the money he'd paid them. Most of them were willing to make easy money and quite indifferent to what the photographer was trying to achieve. He was just another trick to them I guess. In each piece of work diCorcia has printed the model's name, their location of origin, and money paid. All the photographs were taken around West Hollywood.

There is a definite filmic vibe to the series. The images are constructed and sit in the same genre of work alongside Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall. Usually there are props creating odd juxtapositions in the images that are a comment on our consumer driven capitalist society. The image below shows the model staring through the window of a burger restaurant. The solitary burger placed on the bench is no accident, and asks the viewer to make a direct comparison between the meat for sale, both inside and outside the window.

'Eddie Anderson, 21 years old, Houston, Texas, 20$' Philip-Lorca diCorcia

I get a sense of the hustlers as existing in a sort of twilight world - slipping through a transitory space as the world goes about its business around them - unseeing, not willing to see. Hustlers aside, I like the idea of these spaces. I find them intriguing. It's like a figure walking down a dual carriageway that is little used by people as the traffic speeds by. The travellers regards them for a moment and then they are dropped, replaced by the ever changing vista.

The locations used for Hustlers lend them an aura of glamour to my eyes - a type of grimy, sleazy, Hollywood glamour - but glamour all the same. I'd like to make work that uses more interesting backdrops too, but I'm not sure how a student (on a limited budget and with no status or influence) would go about that. Permission is needed for most public spaces. Time to set up and intruding bystanders would most likely be an issue too. At the moment I've used pretty isolated locations to get around this problem. Most of my assignment 1 images were taken at Brownsea Island near Poole, in Dorset.

Finding ways to use public spaces in my work is worth thinking about though. The gains achieved from having a much wider visual and narrative vocabulary would be worth pursuing.