Philip-Lorca diCorcia

The first solo exhibition in Hong Kong by Philip-Lorca diCorcia spans the breadth of his influential career. On view will be photographs from series including East of Eden (2008–ongoing), Heads (2000–2001), Hustlers (1990–1992), and Streetwork (1993–1999), as well as a selection of his Polaroid photographs and early images from the 1980s. 

Born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut, diCorcia has described his creative path from a perspective of instability and resistance. “Art is not a career for me,—it never really was,” he said in 2015. “This romantic vision of an artist, the one that I grew up with in which you follow a sort of strange sensibility or your heart, mind, or muse … there is no such thing anymore.” 

Part of a generation of photographers determined to test the boundaries of the medium, diCorcia is known for images that are at once documentary and theatrically staged, operating in a space between fact and fiction. According to Arthur Lubow, writing in The New York Times, “When Mr. diCorcia, then an unknown photographer, dropped off his portfolio at the Museum of Modern Art in 1983, the curators waged an informal bet over whether the photographs were staged. Even connoisseurs couldn’t be sure.”