New York City-based photographer and multidisciplinary artist David Drebin is recognised around the world for his distinctive and slightly surreal cinematic images and installations.
From dreamlike panoramas of iconic cities emerging from the mist to glamorous women floating in a vast expanse of seemingly empty ocean, his work draws us into a place where nothing is predictable, conventional or familiar.
Choosing unexpected angles from which to observe his subjects, Drebin accentuates the solitude of his female figures in their strange, sometimes dangerous, uninhabited worlds. The feeling of lingering drama is emphasised by the sharpness and the high definition quality of the figurative work, while the softer edges of the panoramic dreamscapes are more gently enigmatic. Each evocative photograph tells its own story but leaves the viewer space to interpret its meaning and possible ending through their own psychological perspective; one senses that no two responses will ever be the same.
Drebin was born in Toronto, Canada in 1970 and studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York. His first solo exhibition in Berlin in 2005 made a name for him and his work overnight, with collectors and critics intrigued by his unique, imaginative vision and the unresolved tensions that lay beneath the surface of his exquisitely shot photographs. He went on to work with A-list celebrities and many global powerhouse brands including Mercedes, MTV, Nike and Davidoff.
His work is sold through the most prestigious galleries and auction houses and has been featured in countless publications such as Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone and Condé Nast Traveller. He has also published a number of successful art books.
Drebin has recently been inspired by Andy Warhol’s diamond dust prints for which diamonds were crushed and sprinkled onto archival watercolour paper to make the image sparkle and pop. Drebin has himself used diamond dust to enhance his latest series of powerful photographic images in a different way, as here the shimmering surface seems to highlight the sense of unreality, a feeling that there is perhaps magic in the air.
“His panoramas of the metropolis whose formats pay homage to Hollywood cinema build an almost eternal space for the imagination.” (Eye of Photography Magazine).
