Lucas Samaras

This series parodies the glamour of actor headshots, subjecting the artist’s friends and colleagues—most of whom are figures in the art world—to unflattering up-lighting and garish Photoshop manipulation. Viewing the human face as his canvas, Samaras invited his sitters to wear glasses which cast startling and uncanny shadows. Samaras, who himself once considered an acting career, originally planned to hire professionals for this project, but later opted for “ordinary” people (in his words, “born actors”), and borrowed from the imagery of horror and science fiction.