Crying Men - Sam Taylor-Johnson

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Résumé :
Crying Men is a series of photographic portraits of famous film actors. Taylor-Johnson makes portraits of her subjects as actors; she shoots them in role, asking each to perform and cry for the camera and demands the actor's investment in the process. These are no passive sitters.
Each of the resulting images is distinct; one actor recalls the hieratic clarity of a Byzantine saint whose tears appear decorative. Other images are of heroic crying where stoic restraint has broken down, there are some that display the voluptuous crying of medieval saints, there are images of cathartic crying, quiet tears of regret and grief, and yet whilst being moved by these intimate revelatory images we simultaneously know that the emotional display is being playacted.
Sam Taylor-Johnson's film and photographic works are distinguished by their subversive creation of enigmatic situations full of latent but explosive energy.
The portraits include Tim Roth, Gabriel Byrne, Laurence Fishburne, Woody Harrelson, Michael Gambon, Jude Law, Hayden Christiansen, Ryan Gosling, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe, and Kris Kristofferson.

Biographie:
Sam Taylor-Johnson (formerly Taylor-Wood) is a British artist and filmmaker. Originally a sculptor, she began working in the mediums of photography, film, and video in the early 1990s and was considered a pivotal figure of the YBA movement. Taylor-Johnson has had numerous group and solo exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1997), where she won the Illy Caf? Prize for Most Promising Young Artist. Other important solo shows include the Hayward Gallery (2002) and BALTIC Gateshead (2006). Her first feature as a director was 2009 with the critically acclaimed ?Nowhere Boy,? which was based on the life of the adolescent John Lennon and was nominated for 4 BAFTAs including Best British Film and Outstanding Debut for her directorial debut. Taylor-Johnson is now in pre-production on her forthcoming hugely anticipated second feature film, E. L. James?s ?Fifty Shades of Grey.?