'Despair', Film Still #1, 2010

Based in Los Angeles, Alex Prager is a self-taught photographer who takes her cues from pulp fiction, the cinematic conventions of movie directors such as Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock, and fashion photography. Resembling movie stills, her unnerving photographs-- crisp, boldly coloured, shot from unexpected angles, and dramatically lit--feature women disguised in wigs, dramatic make-up, and retro attire. This lot is a still from Prager's four-minute film, Despair (2010), starring actress Bryce Dallas Howard.

Prager exhibits her work in various galleries worldwide and in 2010 contributed to The Museum of Modern Art, New York's exhibition, New Photography.

Gift of Michael Hoppen Gallery, London.