The series of large-format photographs by Philip-Lorca DiCorcia entitled Heads was first exhibited in New York in 2001. DiCorcia took the photographs in Times Square using a powerful zoom lens and concealed strobe lighting which was triggered as passers-by hit a marked point on the pavement. As in his earlier Streetwork series, the photographer marries the spontaneity of traditional street photography with the preparation, technical precision and high-production values of commercial photography. As Peter Galassi notes, ‘by tampering in just the right way… diCorcia found that he could invest his pictures with the enchantment of fantasy without relinquishing the power of fact.’
DiCorcia wants to capture and reveal the city dweller in the midst of unthinking routine. Lost in thought, preoccupied and distracted, these people seem curiously absent from the photos. Or perhaps they are merely not prepared to receive attention. What is revealed is something anterior to the public projection of the self. We are seeing private selves in public places. Despite the tight focus on the faces, and despite the absence of background, we know instantly that these are urban portraits, produced by the conditions of the modern city. Because people assume they are anonymous, as they go about their daily business as they go about their daily business, they are happy to drop their guard and, unknowingly, to show their intimate selves. Anonymity produces intimacy. [Artifice and Chance, Intimacy and Anonymity in the urban portraits of Philip Lorca DiCorcia]
Update Your Mascot 