The exhibition comprises two photography series shown together for the first time — The Suicidist produced in 1973 and the recent The Suicidist (continued) — the bodies of work parallel one another in theme: the artist in various post-suicide situations. Playing the role of both actor and director, Samore stages his own death in various ways — strangled with a telephone cord, asphyxiated, overdosed — and examines a macabre psychology in works that are both cinematic and documentary. These black and white pictures evoke both contemporary film noir and a crime scene investigation, and also offer an eerie take on the self-portrait. A sense of absurdist humor and the tragicomic is evident in a number of works in the exhibition. In one picture from the 1973 series, a poster in the background offers an image of a hand holding a flower, and the encouraging words: "Hang onto life for all it's worth." In another, the victim has had the air sucked out of his lungs with a vacuum cleaner. Samore's work suggests a narrative beyond that which is immediately evident. The viewers, questioning what appears before them, are themselves investigators at the scene of a drama.
In the revisited series, The Suicidist (continued), which includes pictures made between 2003 and 2006, Samore shifts from everyday interiors and settings, casual dress, and a midrange vantage point to more austere spaces, each tightly framed, and with the artist appearing impeccably dressed. The hippie/student of the 1973 pictures is now an international businessman, easily interchangeable with any other dark-suited, corporate figure. This transformation of the victim/protagonist is most heightened in pictures that echo a number of earlier compositions, most notably one in which a body is slumped over a pill-strewn desk. By bringing his camera closer to the scene, Samore draws the viewers into the picture — as if they have just discovered the body — and creates a dream-like atmosphere.
October 28, 2006
