Thursday 26 August 2010

Tom Philips




Morbid, yes, but also at times hilarious, Tom Philips' Dead Photos series is an ongoing project photographing an apparently dead body in various locations around the world. Details on the series are deliberately scarce, so its hard to tell if the act of playing dead is a performance in itself at these places, but the resulting images are chilling and sometimes surreal. The figure slumped from a tree branch in San Jacinto could be a piece by an artist like Robert Kinmont or Charles Ray, but those on the rubble in Suakin or by the grey water's edge in France are more akin to troubling forensics photos.
Its interesting to see passersby's reactions in different cities: people stop and stare on The Bowery in New York, whilst they rush about their daily business in Tokyo, barely registering the prone figure in the street.


Dead At Gilgo, August 22nd, 2008


Dead On The Bowery, March 14th, 2010


Dead On St Mary's, June 9th, 2009


Dead In San Jacinto, Jan 2nd, 2010


Dead In The Yaraab Shrine Temple, May 26th, 2010


Dead In Camaret-Sur-Mer, August 30th, 2008


Dead In The Minimalist Dream, May 18th, 2006


Dead In Suakin, December 24th, 2008


Dead In New York, April 28th, 2010


Dead In North Carolina, May 12th, 2008


Dead In Lisbon, October 14th, 2009


Dead In Japan, March 2nd, 2010


Dead In Historic Filipinotown, May 31st, 2008


Dead In Dahab, December 9th, 2007


Dead In Heaven, July 26th, 2010


All images © Tom Philips






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