One of the most influential and innovative photographers working today, Philip-Lorca diCorcia is known for creating images that balance precariously between documentary and theatrically staged photography. His practice takes common everyday occurrences beyond the realm of banality, infusing what would otherwise appear to be insignificant gestures with psychology and emotion. DiCorcia uses photography as a fictive medium, one that is able to create uncanny, complex realities out of seemly straightforward compositions. As such, his work emphasizes the dichotomy between fact and fiction, asking the viewer to question the assumed truths that the photographic image offers.

This exhibition, on view at David Zwirner London, will feature works from the artist’s East of Eden series. Begun in 2008, this project is an ongoing series of large-scale photographs, which the artist has said was “provoked by the collapse of everything, which seems to me a loss of innocence. People thought they could have anything. And then it just blew up in their faces. I’m using the Book of Genesis as a start.” East of Eden, John Steinbeck’s magnum opus published in 1952, parallels many themes in the biblical Book of Genesis, such as the classic struggle between good and evil (from the Cain and Abel story), the hunger for acceptance and greatness, and the capacity for self-destruction and especially of guilt and redemption. In his series, diCorcia takes the economic and political climate of the United States towards the end of the Bush era as a source of inspiration. These images convey a sense of disillusionment and seem to depict people and events just after “the fall.”