MoMA's New Photography 2010 presents four artists—Roe Ethridge, Elad Lassry, Alex Prager, and Amanda Ross-Ho—whose photographs, taken in the real world and made in the studio, mine the inexhaustible reservoir of images found in print media, television, and cinema. Ethridge takes his shoots in "editorial mode," directly borrowing from commercial images already in circulation, including outtakes from his own illustrational magazine work. Lassry defines his practice as one consumed with pictures, meaning with generic images lifted from the fag-ends of consumer society, such as Hollywood publicity stills and design illustrations. His intensely colored photocollages or newly staged studio pictures never exceed the format of a magazine spread and are displayed in matching frames that derive their color from the dominant hues in the photograph. Ross-Ho's mix-and-match installations lined up with pictures of needlepoint and textile designs renegotiate the definition of craft in contemporary art. Prager takes her cues from pulp fiction and the fashion images of Guy Bourdin to construct filmic narratives staring women disguised under synthetic wigs, dramatic makeup, and retro polyester attire. Infusing the seductive language of film and advertising with a touch of subversive conceptualism, the artists included in this edition of New Photography explore the relationship between image and picture. The exhibition is organized by Roxana Marcoci, Curator, Department of Photography.
