Alexa here with some art for your Tuesday. John Stezaker has been a conceptual artist in Britain for more than 40 years. His most recent series mines studio images from cinema's golden age, and resulted in his winning the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Stezaker collects old studio portraits of long-forgotten actors and actresses, juxtaposing two images to create new identities. Or, as he puts it...
when they got broken up and recombined, real people seemed to emerge."
He was approached at a show by a film buff who knew the identities of many of the actors, each having died from suicide, alcohol abuse, or other terrible ends. One woman at his show recognized her old studio portrait in the bunch, yet she had never made it as an actress. I loved that the series gives new life to these forgotten faces.
Here is a selection...
you can see more here.