The series Men in Cities at the Galerie In Camera, Paris, dates from the second half of the 1970s. Robert Longo had long been fascinated with the final scene of Fassbinder’s An American Soldier, in which two gangsters, riddled with bullets, endlessly fall and twirl over each other. Longo, who would go on sculpting in addition to photography, performance art and video, decided to photograph falling bodies and take them as models for a series of life-size charcoal drawings. Between 1976 and 1979, Longo asked friends like Cindy Sherman, Gretchen Bender, Glen Branca, Eric and Larry Gagosian to pose for the project.

Longo captured these prestigious models wearing suits and evening dresses on the roofs of Manhattan, at the very moment the bullet is supposed to hit. As Cindy Sherman recalled in 2009: “Robert shot us in free fall, looking like we were dead. A feeling of force and energy emanates from these photographs. Now I see their choreographic aspect. I see youthful optimism what the punk rock ideology, with ironic and pessimistic overtones, was powerless to hide... Creating these poses became a sort of dance, and I think that’s why I remember having such a good time.”

Since then, Longo has become one of the most renowned artists of his generation. In 2009 he decided to return to Men in the Cities to publish a book at Shirmer Mosel. A selection of color and black-and-white prints from the series are currently on display.

Bernard Perrine

Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Robert Longo 
Men in the Cities

Until May 26, 2012
Galerie in camera 

21 rue Las Cases 

75007 Paris

+33 (0)1 47 05 51 77
contact@incamera.fr 

Tuesday – Saturday, 14-19h