Finn Blythe: This is your first mid-career retrospective, why did now feel like the right time?
Alex Prager: Yeah, the whole thing came about in a very organic way. I thought about doing a book before but it didn’t feel right, I couldn’t put my finger on why, but when Thames & Hudson approached me to do a book at the exact same time as The Photographers Gallery asked me to do this show, it just felt perfect. It wasn’t until we started designing the book and putting the show together that we all realised it was exactly ten years since my first solo show. It took ten years for the motion that I’d begun when I started to feel complete. Those themes that I’d been interested in since seeing my first William Eggleston picture, it’s taken this long to really do all I wanted with them and that feels like a bookend. It was interesting to see how many times I’ve looked at the same few themes and regurgitated them in different ways. That always felt new for me, but it wasn’t until we put the show together that I realised I’ve basically been playing the same movie on repeat over and over.

Finn: Well it’s a great movie and I’m looking forward to seeing more. Speaking of which, am I right in saying you actually grew up on Hollywood Blvd?
Alex: Yeah I mean cinema has always been a huge part of my life, whether I knew it or not. Just growing up in Los Angeles I was always surrounded by the film industry, to the degree that I’m never quite sure whether I’m sitting in a set or a cafe. Buildings go up that I think are going to be permanent and it turns out they were just built for a superhero movie and they were exploded last week and now it’s something else. It’s the perfect city to examine the line between reality and artifice and how they interact and play with each other.

Finn: Is there a heightened sense of the superficial, not only in your physical surroundings, but the people you encounter in Hollywood?
Alex: Yeah absolutely. Los Angeles has been portrayed in film probably more than any other city, so people’s perceptions, from media and film, differs hugely with what it actually is and the people that live there. Even the people that are there for parties and events, the Malibu state and the blue sky, all of it is pretty unsettling when you actually think about the things that are going on in the city.

Finn: That noir aesthetic is so central to the sinister feel of your images, but what draws you to explore that darkness? Is it exclusive to LA?
Alex: My imagery is not just about Los Angeles but about perception in general and the relationship between reality and artifice. It’s about how walking that line can be used to communicate things that are important to me. I’m creating worlds that are artificial but they’re meant to reflect real emotion that I’m experiencing, questions that I have about things that make me uncomfortable, that’s what is holding these images together. When I shot La Grande Sortie at The Paris Opera it was amazing talk to some of the dancers and hear how long they’ve been wanting to play certain roles and the pain they go through. There are all these things going on underneath, but on the surface it’s perfection and lightness and beauty, but you only see the role once they’re finally playing it. All of these layers create a tension. My own stage fright and the fact I’m my own worst critic go along with that.

Alexander McQueen Polka Dot Cotton Blend Printed Socks $77

Read Next