The Disciples (2004-2008)
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 portraits 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 of over 500 individual portraits in 58 panoramic images, The Disciples series is 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 N’Dour, 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.
JAMES MOLLISON
born in 1973 in Kenya, lives in Venice (Italy)
www.jamesmollison.com
James Mollison was born in Kenya, and grew up in England. After studying art and design at Oxford Brookes University, and later film and photography at Newport School of Art and Design, he moved to Italy to work at Benetton’s creative lab, Fabrica. He has published four books: James & Other Apes (2004) – fifty ‘passport’ photographs of the Great Apes; The Memory of Pablo Escobar (2007) – the extraordinary story of ‘the richest and most violent gangster in history’ told by hundreds of photographs gathered by Mollison; Where Children Sleep (2010) – stories of diverse children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms. His third book, Disciples (2008) includes panoramic format portraits of music fans photographed before and after concerts.