David Hilliard

Essay by Charlotte Cotton. Interview by Vince Aletti. David Hilliard´s vibrant color photographs, usually triptychs or larger compositions, present elaborate narratives exploring a range of themes and situations, from the awkwardness of adolescence to masculinity disarmed. Formally, these staged photographs share the style of contemporary photographers like Gregory Crewdson and Anna Gaskell, among others. Yet Hilliard draws less from the realm of the fantastic and instead looks to his immediate surroundings to draw inspiration, as he deftly fuses autobiography with fiction to engage a host of complex ideas. This lush monograph is the first major publication of Hilliard´s work. Included are works from the artist´s ongoing series of his father that demonstrate Hilliard´s ability to tangle fact with fiction as the resulting images, underscored by the artist´s wry outlook on the world, convey a distinct poignancy. Other works engage issues of intimacy, homoeroticism and identity. The resulting scenes are as often elegiac as they are comical, always orchestrated with precision, and with a marriage of form and content that work together to immerse the viewer in the visual narrative.