Kelly, West Sunset Blvd, 2010

Aperture is pleased to release this limited-edition photograph from Lise Sarfati's series On Hollywood.

The focus of the series is the landscape of Los Angeles and the women who, after being trapped by the allure of Hollywood, now find themselves struggling with harsh realities. Sarfati was inspired by French writer Guy Debord’s concept of “psycho-geographical wanderings”: roaming the boulevards of Hollywood, Sarfati studied how geographical surroundings can impact the emotional behavior of individuals. Focusing on banal locations such as street corners, parking lots, and corner stores, Sarfati photographed women on the fringe of society. While working, she developed personal relationships with her subjects, which allowed her to capture their vulnerability. We see Sarfarti's subject, Kelly, standing alone and isolated in a corner store; she evokes the canon of the anti-heroine. Sarfati captured this image using some of the last rolls of Kodachrome 64 color film, and its particular characteristics lend to Kelly the suggestion of 1940s-era Hollywood starlets. The Technicolor quality of the film contrasts the lackluster moment, heightening the tension between humdrum reality and old Hollywood glamour.

Pigment Print
Image Size: 13 3/8 x 9 inches
Paper Size: 17 3/8 x 13 inches
Edition of 15 + 3 AP
Signed and numbered by the artist

Lise Sarfati (b. 1958, Oran, Algeria) is a photographer and artist living and working in Paris, France. She holds a Master’s in Russian studies from the Sorbonne. Sarfati has been working in the United States, where she has made seven series of work which have been widely exhibited and published, including solo shows at LACMA, Los Angeles; Magnum Gallery, Paris; Fotografins Hus, Stockholm; Maison Rouge, Paris; FOAM, Amsterdam; UCR/California Museum of Photography; Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France; and Centre National de la Photographie Paris. Her work is held in many private and public collections, including LACMA, Los Angeles; SFMOMA, San Francisco; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Brooklyn Museum; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum.