Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive - (Hardcover)

About the Book

"First published in the United States of America in 2018 by Chronicle Books LLC. First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Thames & Hudson Ltd."--Page [224].

Book Synopsis

Alex Prager is one of the truly original image makers of our time. She creates delicately staged compositions that are familiar yet strange, utterly compelling, and unerringly memorable. Silver Lake Drive showcases Prager's boldest creations to date: from the early Polyester series, through her film collaborations with actor Bryce Dallas Howard, to the tour-de-force Face in the Crowd--shot on a Hollywood sound stage with more than 150 performers--and her 2016 commission for the Paris Opera, La Grande Sortie. In a deluxe hardcover package with a textured two-piece case and foil stamping, Silver Lake Drive is an essential collectible for Prager's fans and an illuminating introduction to her work for new audiences.

Review Quotes

"A treasure trove of boldly captivating images encapsulates a decade of work from a groundbreaking photographer and filmmaker." --Shelf Awareness

"Alex Prager is one of the most compelling contemporary photographers, staging dream-like and hyper-real scenes; each image has a filmic, almost Hitchcock-like quality. This deluxe edition collects some of her most iconic images to date, including the 2016 commission for the Paris Opera, La Grande Sortie." --The Strategist

"It's hard to believe it's been just over a decade since Alex Prager's cinematic images of young women in retro costumes first gained attention. The photographs from her series 'Polyester' (2007) and 'The Big Valley' (2008) look as fresh today as they did when we first began wondering what exactly was going on with the characters in her images.... Prager's works are full of mystery and human drama. Their obvious artificiality and invocation of the style of postwar Hollywood films also urges us to think about how movies have shaped our culture, and about the types of stories that engage us as viewers." --PDN

"People have occasionally compared the L.A.-based photographer and filmmaker Alex Prager to the likes of Cindy Sherman and William Eggleston, but having a collection of her wide-ranging yet serially cohesive volumes of work in one book wholly shows her signature as an artist." --Rangefinder

"Photographer Alex Prager's hyperreal images have a cinematic potency: In one, a woman in a blue top with a bouffant huddles waist-deep in the ocean; in another, a blonde in a miniskirt is attacked by pigeons. The new monograph Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive brings a selection of 120 of her lush images to coffee tables and bookshelves." --Elle

"The thought-provoking works of photographer and filmmaker Alex Prager are presented in this extraordinary collection, giving readers a detailed glimpse into her career." --Publishers Weekly

"What makes the images so special is not only their rich color palettes and endlessly absorbing detail, but also Prager's inclusion of a single person either looking directly into the camera or staring wistfully off into the distance, out of step with the people around her." --The A.V. Club

About the Author

Nathalie Herschdorfer is the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle, in Switzerland, and the curator at the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography.

Alex Prager is an Emmy Award-winning, Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker whose work hangs in major museums all over the world.

Michael Govan has been the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 2006.