From
Lifelounge's Dirty Edition...
Phillip Toledano is a British-born, New York-based photographer with a cheeky eye for the unusual. Using elaborate props and highly polished photographic techniques, his conceptual images are punch packed full of hidden meanings and almost always comprise of an underlying critque of his country and Western socitey.
LL: Your work seems to be incredibly concept driven and deliberate, with each series cleverly delivering a clear statement about modern Western society. Is the necessity of a larger idea in your photographs fundamental to you work? Is it a bi-product of working within the advertising industry for so long?
PT: I think that’s true – I’m fundamentally interested in ideas, specifically socio-political ones. I like working within a small box of my own crafting, and I’ve always felt it important to be saying something . Is it a by product of having worked in advertising? I always used to think so, but recently in conversations with my father, he always talks about the importance of ideas, so I wonder if the seed was planted much earlier.
LL: Hope and Fear is both ridiculous and genius with obviously a lot of attention to detail. What’s your general process for constructing composite images like these. Does it begin with a sketch, evolve behind the lens or is it not until it’s on computer screen that you realise your true vision?
This is something I hear often about Hope and Fear. There is actually very little post at all with those images – I designed and had those suits made, and then the only thing I would do in post is clean up, remove strings, supports, etc. So everything happens in camera, which is the way I prefer.
It’s a shame, because when people see something unusual in photography, the assumption is always that digital trickery is afoot!
LL: Being the Dirty Edition of Lifelounge and all, it’s probably appropriate to ask you about your Phone Sex series. What was it about these hidden workers that drove you to enter their homes and photograph people who are otherwise anonymous members of the erotic service industry? What did you learn from the experience?
PT: I’m quite driven by how society works. When I’m asked about Phone Sex, the assumption is always that I was a vigorous user of the service, and that was the inspiration behind the project. In fact, the idea manifested itself in the way all of my ideas do, which is to say, quite random. Ideas, for me, are like gatecrashers at a party. They show up uninvited, sit around on the sofa, drinking my booze, until I finally notice them. I’m interested in the obvious, in the things that are right in front of us. I’m also interested in dispelling myth, in peeling back the cliché to reveal the truth (and sometimes the truth IS the cliché).
Also, I was very interested in the idea of mass delusion, and since we in America have been living in a sort of delusion for the last eight years, Phone Sex seemed oddly appropriate.
What did I learn? Well, specifically about phone sex, I learnt that the men and women who do it require nimble imaginations, verbal skill, and above all, an intimate understanding of the human condition.
LL: How did you get your subjects to invite you into their homes and offer what you would imagine would be some pretty intimate details about their clients. They must have been very comfortable with you. What was the dirtiest tale that was recalled?
PT: I was very straight-forward with everyone about what I wanted from the project. I often spoke for a week or two via email before showing up to their houses, and I always told them that if they wanted to have someone there to make sure I wasn’t an axe-murderer, that was fine. It’s hard to remember the dirtiest tale – certainly the most shocking was the woman who told me that someone had killed themselves on the phone with her.
LL: Your most recent series America The Gift Shop, uses a darkly humorous tone to paint an uncomfortably honest and understandably harsh picture of US foreign policy. Where did the idea of utilising ‘souvenirs’ come from and why did you choose the ‘gift shop’ to communicate your message.
PT: The thing about America is that EVERYTHING, no matter how sacred, ends up being for sale. Things are always refracted in the prism of raw commerce. I wanted a medium that would at once trivialize, and by the same token, horrify the viewer.
LL: What next for Mr Toledano, any new projects or books on the horizon?
PT: Well, my new book Phonesex is coming out this month. Then next year, Days with my Father, an extremely personal project about my dad, will be published. And then I’m working on three new projects. I like working on multiple projects at once, I suppose...