Melanie Pullen
The Stalker (Voyeur Series)
2018

About the Item

“I’m continuously creating imagery that questions our perceptions and our ingrained desire to observe the forbidden, to find beauty where we shouldn’t and to glamorize violence.” - Melanie Pullen The gallery will present a showcase of Pullen’s photographic works ranging from her early High Fashion Crime Scenes to her more recent monographs. Pullen explores the glamorization and desensitization of violence on the human psyche through themes of voyeurism, early forensic photography, and war photojournalism. She self-proclaims their appropriation as exploitative as the images boldly confront societal morés through tongue-and-cheek tableaux. Melanie Pullen is the architect of meticulously re-constructed orchestrations of large-scale photographs depicting scenes which examine social constructs and their taboos. Resembling high-budget film noir, she narrates thematic vignettes rife with grit and glamour through challenging ideas concerning images of death, war, sex, violence and the voyeurism attached to their documentation and consumption. Engaging in a critical dialogue of ‘forensic aesthetics’ in her artistic practice, she interrogates and reconfigures ethical quandaries surrounding epistemologies of an object-oriented culture.

Creator:

Melanie Pullen (1975, American)

Creation Year:

2018

Dimensions:

Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)

More Editions & Sizes:

44"x60", Edition of 5Price: $16,50060"x80", Edition of 5Price: $22,500

Medium:

Inkjet,Archival Pigment

Movement & Style:

Post-Modern

Period:

2010-

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Santa Monica, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU47814468122

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Born in New York City in 1975, Melanie Pullen is a self-taught fine-art photographer raised in a family of photojournalists, publishers, and artists. Growing up within the halls of the famed Hotel Chelsea, Pullen was immersed in this avant-garde setting, which greatly informed her artistic practice. Bi-coastal from an early age, Melanie spent her formative years between New York City and Los Angeles. Pullen’s work focuses extensively on both social values and taboos while purposely taking aim at the media’s exploitation of sex, gender, and violence. Pullen herself has noted that she targets society’s obsessive glamorization by literally re-dressing what are deeply disturbing events, forcing the viewer to question their own values and observations. Her photography has been shown in major museums and galleries internationally: it is permanently in the holdings of many of the most prominent public and private collections around the world: Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, Florida; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico; Howard Stein & the Forward Thinking Collection, New York, New York; Walker Art Center Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; The Rand Collection, Santa Monica, California. Most recently the Getty Museum acquired several pieces from her High Fashion Crime Scenes which now reside in their permanent collection after being included in their exhibition: Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography. Pullen’s work has been featured in a number of publications including: The New York Times, T Magazine; Los Angeles Times; Vogue; Esquire Magazine; ELLE; London’s Independent; Spin Magazine; W Magazine; Flaunt Magazine; 1814 Magazine; Rolling Stone Magazine and Vanity Fair. Melanie Pullen has published three photography books, two with Nazraeli Press, the other with Kodansha. Melanie was awarded the D&D Yellow Pencil Award in 2007. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.