Rodeo Drive, 1984
Anthony Hernandez
96 pages | 41 colour plates
30 cm x 30 cm
Clothbound hardcover with tipped-in image
MACK, 2012
Rodeo Drive, 1984 is a series of 41 images of shoppers on Beverly Hills’ infamous shopping highway. The subjects appear caught unaware, glancing up as they walk, or daydreaming as they wait to be served in its commercial landscape of shops and restaurants. Anthony Hernandez poses as a dispassionate observer, recording the big hair, wide shoulders and cinched waists of the 1980’s in sunlit photographs.
Hernandez does not simply document the urban experience, but reveals in his images the complexity of social spaces, implying economic disparity and racial divide. Layers of socio-economic tension are exposed on a street in an overt symbol of civic success; as Lewis Baltz observes, “these are the victors…enjoying the spoils of their victory on Rodeo Drive”.
http://www.mackbooks.co.uk/books/46-Rodeo-Drive-1984.html