Alex prager

I never plan anything in an analytical way before I shoot, but when I look back there seems to be kind of a primary color palette.

When I'm shooting in other cities, I'm just trying to make it look like California.

I always work with the same composer, his name is Ali Helnwein. I don't have a musical background.

The eyes sparked a lot of things for me, it could be somebody remembering something they had witnessed or heard about, or it could be the person in the photograph that was experiencing a tragedy or it could also be the spectator looking on from a safe distance.

I think that's one of the reasons it's nice to leave out a lot; it can become a lot more personal to people if there is room for them to put their own experiential time track on it.

I lived in London for small amounts of time, and in Florida and New York.

With photography, I like to leave a lot of the story, even to myself.

I like to use really basic or classic colors, things that people have seen over and over and over again. Primary colors, at least in photography, have been around a lot longer than neon colors and really vibrant purples, hot pinks. Red, blue, yellow, orange - because of Kodachrome and the way that things were produced I think that those colors stood out more than any others.

I am looking for the disconnected connection

I never thought about the green, but LA has a lot of greenery.

It's hard for me to approach [a film] as a still image now that I know exactly what it takes to make a movie. I mean, I know what it takes to make a movie that lasts five minutes.

I think the worst reaction that I could get from someone to my photos is some sort of mediocre, middle-range reaction where they really get nothing from it, and they want to move on to the next thing. [I'd rather they be] horrified, pissed off at me, extremely disgusted at how bad of an artist I am.

I can't even imagine what it is like to make a movie that lasts two hours.

It's always really scary to release new work.

Author details

Alex Prager: Biography and Life Work

Alex Prager is recognized for significant cultural contributions.

Prager is best known for making large-scale photographic works that distort the boundaries between reality and artifice, often centered around the human condition. Her photographs and first short film were included in Mo MA 's New Photography 2010 exhibition and in 2023, Prager was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film."

Legacy and Personal Influence

Historically, their work is best remembered for Photography, Filmmaking.

Philosophical Views and Reflections

In 2019, Prager completed and exhibited her most autobiographical body of work to date, which included photographs and a new short film, "Play the Wind " with Dimitri Chamblas and Riley Keough . The work is an homage to and reflection on the city of Los Angeles, Prager's hometown and a frequent source of inspiration throughout her career.

We might then connect Prager's crowds to democratic studies of class and labor, like August Sander 's Face of our Time (1929) and Irving Penn 's Small Trades (1950–51) . Prager's contemporary crowds, filled with markers of class, gender, occupation, and privilege (or lack thereof), absorb and require us to consider the very real ramifications of collectivity and estrangement.

EQ
Empery Quotes
Inspire · Reflect · Repeat