In 1999, photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia set up his camera on a tripod in Times Square, set up powerful strobe lights across the street on some scaffolding out of the view of the passing pedestrians, and proceeded to take over 4,000 images of passers by who travelled through the path of his lights. The resulting images show highlighted silhouettes with faces reflecting the mundane and tedious act of shuffling through a crowd of thousands of people. The lighting seems to add a sort of vulnerability to each person by visually drawing them out from their surroundings. In 2006, one of his subjects sued him and his gallery for using his likeness for profit and exhibition without his permission. Eventually the lawsuit was dismissed.
text by Canbra Hodsdon