Marilyn, 28 years old, Las Vegas, Nevada, $30
1993
This iconic photograph by Philip Lorca diCorcia, titled "Marilyn," captures a subject in drag with striking makeup and a dark wig, gazing directly at the viewer. Part of his renowned "Hustlers" series, the image is set against a blurred urban backdrop, characteristic of his staged street photography. The work explores themes of identity, performance, and the lives of marginalized individuals in city environments.
- Medium
- Chromogenic print
More by Philip Lorca Dicorcia
Collectors with works by Philip Lorca Dicorcia
Artists in conversation
Nan Goldin
American · b. 1953
Goldin's intimate chromogenic portrait photography documents LGBTQ+ communities, drag performers, and marginalized urban individuals with the same raw emotional directness and warm color palette seen in diCorcia's Marilyn. Her work similarly blurs the line between staged and documentary portraiture while centering identity and performance.
Diane Arbus
American · b. 1923
Arbus created intimate portrait photographs of transgender individuals, drag performers, and socially marginalized subjects who gaze directly and unflinchingly at the camera, sharing diCorcia's focus on identity, performance, and dignified representation of those living outside mainstream society.
Larry Clark
American · b. 1943
Clark's color photographic work documents the lives of street youth and sex workers in urban American environments with the same unflinching intimacy and social commentary present in diCorcia's Hustlers series, similarly treating subjects with complexity while exploring themes of survival, identity, and life on the margins.
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