James Mollison

01/09

Between 2004 and 2007, James Mollison attended pop concerts across Europe and the USA with a mobile photography studio, inviting fans of each music star or band to pose for their portrait outside the gig. He subsequently combined portraits of 8-10 fans for each performer into a single line up, making a single panoramic image in each case. With a total over 500 individual portraits, in 58 panoramic images, The Disciples, an original, sharp and highly entertaining take on contemporary music culture and the tribalism invoked by popular music stars.

Included are the disciples of the Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Buffett, George Clinton, the Cure, the Damned, P Diddy, Snoop Dogg, the Dresden Dolls, Yossou NʼDour, Bob Dylan, Missy Elliot, 50 Cent, Iron Maiden, Elton John, Tom Jones, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Madness, Marilyn Manson, George Michael, Morrissey, Motorhead, Willie Nelson, the New York Dolls, Oasis, Dolly Parton, Iggy Pop, Prince, Radiohead, Shabba Ranks, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cliff Richard, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, Shakira, the Spice Girls, Rod Stewart, Angie Stone, Take That, ZZ Top, U2 and the Wailers.

With a foreword by Desmond Morris, ethologist, writer and broadcaster (whose previous books include The Naked Ape, 1967), The Disciples also features a commentary by Mollison on his encounter with the fans of each star. The book is exquisitely designed and produced on a large portfolio scale (each image featured appears at 70cm/28in wide), and is published in a limited edition of 3000 copies.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
James Mollison was born in Kenya in 1973 and grew up in England. After studying Art and Design at Oxford Brookes, and later film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design, he moved to Italy to work at Benettonʼs creative lab, Fabrica. Now independent and based in Venice, Italy, his work has been widely published throughout the world including by Colors, The New York Times Magazine, the Guardian magazine, The Paris Review, The New Yorker and Le Monde. His previous books include The Memory of Pablo Escobar (Chris Boot, 2007) and James and Other Apes (Chris Boot, 2004). Mollison is a gallery artist of Hasted Hunt, New York.