John Hilliard
Exit

1993
photography | c-print in frame
125 x 147 cm

A bright theatre light casts a shadow on the cheek of a blond woman wearing red lipstick. The photographer plays with the sharp contrasts between dark and light, and with the alternation of various planes in the composition. The result is a somewhat ominous scene. The young woman appears to want to turn away from the light and shadow, and to flee the camera’s eye.

Just as in many paparazzi photos, in which commercial photographers aggressively seek to obtain unique images of celebrities such as film stars or royalty, here we see an alluring young woman who is cornered and threatened.

Exit is typical of the sort of work that John Hilliard was making in the 1990s. His overexposed, glossy, intense colour photos from that decade evoke the atmosphere of erotic or violent scenes. But without the context of a film or reportage, and through the complex compositions, they are entirely self-standing.