Storybook Life [Hardcover]

Philip-Lorca diCorcia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

The disparate photographs assembled here were made over the course of twenty years. None of them were originally intended to be used in this book. By ordering and shaping them I tried to investigate the possibilities of narrative both within a single image and especially in relation to the other photographs. A Storybook Life is an attempt to discover the possibilities of meaning in the interaction of seemingly unrelated images in the hope that content can constantly mutate according to both the external and internal condition of the viewer, but remain meaningful because of it’s inherent, but latent content. The conscious and subconscious decisions made in editing the photographs is the real work of A Storybook Life. Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

BORN: 1951, Hartford, Connecticut EDUCATION:
Yale University, New Haven, M.F.A. 1979
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Post Graduate Certificate, 1976
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Diploma, 1975

SELECTED AWARDS:
2001 Infinity Award for Applied Photography, International Center of Photography
1998 Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, Life Magazine, Style Essay
1989 Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1987 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1986 Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1980 Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts

SELECTED INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS:
2003 PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
2003 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England
Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
2002 Monica De Cardenas, Milan, Italy
Barbara Krakow, Boston, Massachusetts
2001 PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Galerie Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich, Germany
Gagosian Gallery, London, England
2000 Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
Lawing Gallery, Houston, Texas
Galeria OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
1999 PaceWildenstein, New York, New York
Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Art Space Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
1998 Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Hustler/Streetwork, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Streetwork, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France
Streetwork, PaceWildensteinMacGill, New York, New York
1997 Streetwork, Galerie Klemens Gasser und Tanja Grunert,
Cologne, Germany
Hollywood Pictures, 1990-92, PaceWildenstein,
Los Angeles, California
1996 StreetWork, PaceWildensteinMacGill, New York, New York
Theoretical Events, Naples, Italy
Hollywood, Galerie Klemens Gasser, Cologne, Germany
The Photographer's Gallery, London, England
1995 Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland
Galerie Klemens Gasser, Cologne, Germany
1994 Portraits of America, Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Nikon
Salon, Osaka, Japan
1993 Philip-Lorca diCorcia: Trade, Centre Culturel du Rocher, Lyon, France
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: Photographs 1982-1992,
Wooster Gardens, New York, New York
Philip-Lorca diCorcia: Strangers, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York, New York
Strangers and Others, Galeria Palmira Suso, Lisbon,
Portugal
1991 Philip-Lorca diCorcia, The Photographer's Gallery,
London, England
1985 Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Fotographie, Zeus Arts, Milan,
Italy

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Twin Palms Publishers (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931885230
• ISBN-13: 978-1931885232
• Product Dimensions: 14.5 x 11.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,155,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Take a look for yourself before buying., November 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Storybook Life (Hardcover)

If you really like and admire the work of Philip-Lorca diCorcia then this book may be really tempting, however take care, the beautifully lit and composed work that you are used to is only a small fraction of this book. the rest is made up of landscape work which veers away from the rich vein of work that have brought him success, and in many cases these photographs are not that good when compared with the landscape work being produced by many of his contemporarys. Take a look for yourself before buying.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY POWERFUL AND PERSONAL COLLECTION OF IMAGES, December 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Storybook Life (Hardcover)

According to Vince Auletti in the Village Voice

"What makes "A Storybook Life" so enthralling isn't diCorcia's proven skill at crafting a convincing fiction, it's his ability to invest the whole nearly indigestible enterprise with feeling: longing, confusion, regret, tenderness, dismay, love, and, above all, a kind of bruised optimism. It's the accumulated weight of this emotion-however muffled, disguised, or denied-that gives the work its power as a piece. DiCorcia is no sentimentalist; he's far too smart and too subtle. He's not spilling his guts, he's constructing a riddle that even he doesn't know the answer to. All the more surprising that, in the end, he's also created a piece that doesn't seem to be just about his life, but ours."

I could not have said it better myself.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book, a beautiful object, February 3, 2004

By 

Brian (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storybook Life (Hardcover)

Although I agree that there are images in this book which should not be included, this is a nice concept piece considered as a whole. And I do somewhat disagree with those that say the landscape photography is weak. I find some of it to be quite striking. One in particular is probably one of the subtlest and most striking landscapes I have seen in recent publications. It's unfair to compare Philip-Lorca diCorcia's work with that of Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky. This book is wonderful, and well worth the investment.