Sure to captivate film and photobook fans alike with its fantastically bizarre restaging of Star Wars on an abandoned New Brutalist planet Earth
Jabba the Hut lurks in the shadows of a decrepit, abandoned warehouse, his toady eyes glowing; Boba Fett looms up from the fluorescent glare of an indoor car park, poised to kill; Yoda peers out inquiringly from the window ledge of some otherwise untenanted institutional building; Han Solo's cryogenically frozen form on a slab stands, installed bizarrely in an anonymous concrete plaza. Of the many scenarios to which Star Wars fans have dispatched the films' protagonists over the years, none--not even Seth McFarlane's Family Guy homages--are as unlikely as Cédric Delsaux's. In Dark Lens, Delsaux transports Darth Vader and the whole gamut of Star Wars iconography to a post-apocalyptic, urban-suburban landscape of endless parking lots, highrises and wasteland interzones, vacant of ordinary human life. Delsaux's “mythology of banality” (as he describes it) produces images that are not just funny or preposterous, but also weirdly compelling; in their photographic plausibility they successfully incorporate Star Wars into an everyday reality that we can all recognize, but in ways that make both worlds seem strangely real and absurdly false. Delsaux's Dark Lens will captivate both film and photobook fans alike with its fantastically bizarre recasting of Star Wars on planet Earth after the apocalypse.
Featured image, "Darth Vader, Dubai," 2009, is reproduced from French photographer Cédric Delsaux's delightfully surprising new monograph, Dark Lens. Treated to a glowing full-page review in the December 11 New York Times, the work "wasn’t born to pay homage to R2-D2, Luke Skywalker and their buddies," according to The Times' Dana Jennings. "'My first intention wasn't to produce a series on Star Wars, but to photograph locations that are the makeup of our modernity: parking lots, peripheral zones, wastelands, forgotten places, of both beauty and ugliness, common and mad,' Mr. Delsaux said by e-mail. 'Nevertheless, something was missing, my images were flat, déjà vu. I then had the idea to add these sci-fi characters, with the immediate effect of making my primal sensations stand out, the fantastical nature of the characters invading the whole frame, both universes harmoniously coming together.'"
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
The New York Times
DANA JENNINGS
The images simmering in the French photographer Cédric Delsaux’s “Dark Lens” series are an unsettling confluence of hyper-real cityscapes, a post-postmodern sense of humor ... and characters from “Star Wars.”
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FROM THE BOOK
"Over the years, many artists have interpreted Star Wars in ways that extend well beyond anything we saw in the films. One of the most unique and intriguing interpretations that I have seen is in the work of Cédric Delsaux, who has cleverly integrated Star Wars characters and vehicles into stark urban, industrial—but unmistakably earthbound environments. As novel and disruptive as his images are, they are also completely possible. I am honored that Cédric Delsaux has brought Star Wars into the world of his photography, and happy that his exceptional work can be presented in this book."
In this Sunday's New York Times Dana Jennings writes, "THE images simmering in the French photographer Cédric Delsaux’s Dark Lens series are an unsettling confluence of hyper-real cityscapes, a postpostmodern sense of humor... and characters from Star Wars." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 14.5 x 11.25 in. / 118 pgs / 56 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $99 ISBN: 9782915173703 PUBLISHER: Editions Xavier Barral AVAILABLE: 10/31/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by Editions Xavier Barral. Introduction by George Lucas.
Sure to captivate film and photobook fans alike with its fantastically bizarre restaging of Star Wars on an abandoned New Brutalist planet Earth
Jabba the Hut lurks in the shadows of a decrepit, abandoned warehouse, his toady eyes glowing; Boba Fett looms up from the fluorescent glare of an indoor car park, poised to kill; Yoda peers out inquiringly from the window ledge of some otherwise untenanted institutional building; Han Solo's cryogenically frozen form on a slab stands, installed bizarrely in an anonymous concrete plaza. Of the many scenarios to which Star Wars fans have dispatched the films' protagonists over the years, none--not even Seth McFarlane's Family Guy homages--are as unlikely as Cédric Delsaux's. In Dark Lens, Delsaux transports Darth Vader and the whole gamut of Star Wars iconography to a post-apocalyptic, urban-suburban landscape of endless parking lots, highrises and wasteland interzones, vacant of ordinary human life. Delsaux's “mythology of banality” (as he describes it) produces images that are not just funny or preposterous, but also weirdly compelling; in their photographic plausibility they successfully incorporate Star Wars into an everyday reality that we can all recognize, but in ways that make both worlds seem strangely real and absurdly false. Delsaux's Dark Lens will captivate both film and photobook fans alike with its fantastically bizarre recasting of Star Wars on planet Earth after the apocalypse.
