Stockland Martel

We’re thrilled to report that David Drebin’s new monograph, The Morning After, is being issued in January by teNeues, and the venerable art-book publisher will be celebrating it with a book launch in Berlin this week. The launch coincides with a solo exhibition of David’s photographs, also titled “The Morning After,” at Camera Work on Friday, November 27. Congratulations, David!

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Here’s what teNeues is saying about David and The Morning After:

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“A talented photographer without equal, David Drebin is above all a storyteller. His brooding and glamorous works tells tales of lust and voyeurism—as well as seduction and escape. Not afraid to be daring, Drebin also tantalizes us with subtle allusions. His sweeping cinematic images feature the majestic backdrops of such world cities as Berlin, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. These photographs pulse with a charged sensuality, using color and light to maximum effect. Dangerous seductresses play a central role in Drebin’s work. Bursts of saturated Technicolor explode against stone and gray cement. In this, he hints at Hitchcock at his finest. We’re left with a tinge of regret amid the sensual excess…”

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David’s previous monographs include Love and Other Stories, published by Daab, and Dreamscapes & Girls, a selection of his work from 2000 to 2009. The Morning After—a 192-page tome published in English, French, German, and Spanish—features the following essay by Michelle Marie Roy, chief curator of photography at the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm, which is currently featuring David’s images in the exhibition “Fashion!”:

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“David Drebin’s photographs are reminiscent of the allure of the silver screen. His images depict storylines dramatized against the backdrop of urban landscapes. Intimate relationships are suggested by the gestures of the characters we meet suspended in each film still. Beauty and heartbreak often intermingle in narratives that are left to the viewer’s imagination to sort out. It is as if we have walked into the cinema halfway through the feature film. Drebin’s work is edgy, intensely detailed, and ripe with deeply saturated colors. His photographs can be categorized into close-ups, panoramas, tableaus, and interiors. Land-and cityscapes make up Drebin’s vivid panoramas. From breathtaking dark seas reflecting city lights, to sand beaches lined with palms, to the haze of a sparkling metropolis, the panoramas draw us into the glamorous milieu of jet-setting sophisticates.

Drebin’s narratives are often centralized around women. Reminiscent of the surveillance of paparazzi, his photographs allow us a glimpse into the secret lives of these fashionistas. The characters are femme fatales, who are gorgeous and strong willed. Despite the single frame of the image, he manages to convey complex emotions inherent to each personality. Beyond designer dresses and rouge, his characters are often caught up in some intrigue, as seen in his series of women photographing each other. The voyeuristic gaze is two-fold. Is this a play on vanity or feminine rivalry? Like a tabloid devotee, we long to uncover the details of the drama.

The Morning After is a collection of images that reside on the border between art and fashion photography. Drebin, from exposure to print, enthralls us with the style and wit of his visual stories. We live vicariously through his characters, and relish in the fantasy evoked by his images.”

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For more information on the exhibition “The Morning After,” please visit Camera Work or click on the invitation below.

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