"My first photographs showed living rooms...lots of living rooms and that was important. This was not my living room. And what was more interesting, this was really not anybody's living room. That was the reason why I started to rephotograph the advertising images. There was no author of these images. It was set up. It was overdeterminated and it did not have a name behind it."

Richard Prince (b. 1949). Untitled (living rooms), 1977. Set of four Ektacolor photographs, edition of 10, 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cm)

In 1977 Richard Prince was working for Time Life, clipping articles from magazines for staff writers. What would remain were the advertisements showing luxury goods, such as expensive watches, lighters, and fine leather products. As he collected and compared myriad examples of product ads, Prince began to notice certain repeated gestures, visual devices, and attitudes, which resulted from the fact that separate companies with comparable products employed remarkably similar advertising strategies. The discovery of these patterns gave him the formal basis for his art.

Prince took the radical step of rephotographing existing photographic images from ads in magazines and calling them his own. With a click of the shutter the images became his—a deceptively casual gesture that changed the rules of art, making it possible to appropriate someone else's creation as your own. In subsequent years, Prince repeated this action using other products and fashion models. He excised out all identifying text or logos, cropped and enlarged images, and rephotographed black-and-white photos in color and vice versa. He compared the various options to making an 8-track recording.

Prince's first photographic appropriation, Untitled (living rooms), comprises a quartet of advertising images from the New York Times Magazine showing elaborately appointed living rooms. Taken from an advertising campaign by a well-known furniture manufacturer, the photos are all similarly proportioned and perfectly suited to the proportions of Prince's 35mm slides. Their compressed, horizontal format emphasizes similar arrangements of plush sofas, well-styled coffee tables, designer carpets, and decorative accoutrements. Though stylistically different—colonial, contemporary, country chic, and urban modern—the images all describe an upper-class lifestyle.

Prince's counterfeit photos reveal that products are sold by means of visual codes that appeal to cultural stereotypes, prejudices, desires, and fears. This is the truth he probes in Untitled (living rooms) and the entire ensuing series of rephotographed works from 1977 to 1984.

• What do you notice?
• Make a list of similarities and differences between these images. Discuss your findings. Which list turns out to be longer?
• What points of view, lifestyles, and values are represented in these photos?
• Prince separated these photos of living rooms from their accompanying advertising copy. Write the copy that you think originally accompanied these images. What tone would you use? What descriptive words and phrases should be included?

• One of the reasons Prince was attracted to these images of living rooms was because they did not have advertising text superimposed on them. In subsequent works he was careful to crop all of the text out of his photos. Removing the text from advertisements allows us to see them in alternate ways. Try this for yourself. Cut two pieces of heavy paper into 2-inch-wide right angles. By moving these papers over a magazine ad, you will be able to crop out the text. Discuss how the meaning and impact changes when you do this?
  Visual Arts


• Prince called attention to patterns in advertising images—how the same arrangement, gesture, or pose could be found in various ads even for different companies and products. Thumb through magazines and look for patterns. Begin to clip and file these ads together. When you have collected a few, pin them up and begin to discuss what you have noticed and your theories on why these strategies are repeated.
  Visual Arts


• In 1977, when Prince took these photos, digital cameras were not available. With a digital camera you can easily try your own rephotographing experiments. Begin by gathering a wide array of magazines spanning various subjects from fashion to fly-fishing. Find an advertising photo that appeals to you and will fill your camera's viewfinder. Frame the image so that no text appears and then rephotograph it. Once your photo is downloaded into a computer you can apply some of Prince's other alterations such as cropping and changing the color balance or focus. Print the photo and compare and contrast the two images. Describe how the process of rephotographing has altered the impact and message. To whom does the new image belong? The advertiser, the magazine, the photographer who originally took it, or you? Explain.
  Technology


• Choose another product: pens, watches, cars, shoes, jewelry, etc. Then go through magazines and tear out ads for that product. When you have a sizeable collection, pin them up and see if you can find any patterns that tell you more about the way in which these objects are marketed.
  Social Studies