David Drebin was born in Toronto, Canada in 1970, making him now 48 years old. Early on David knew he wanted to pursue a career in the arts. David went to an acting school in the summer of 1992, he was acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. When a friend taking a photography class showed him 5 images of his coworkers where their personalities ‘jumped off the paper’. From then on he was fully immersed in the the ‘magic’ of photography. From that point forward David enrolled into a photography school with a dream to moving to New York. Later, he was accepted into Parsons School of Design and he took off with his passion into the artist and personality he is today. He graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1996 at the age of 26. On this experience he says, “I thought I was going to be a commercial photographer and do ad campaigns all over the world but collectors quickly began to collect my limited edition photographs”(Debuck).
At first, David only thought he would be pursuing commercial photography. But now, his images are being sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars to A-list celebrities, world renowned brands and more. He did editorials for many high end magazines, like GQ, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. From this point he made a name for himself by creating many images that portray the emotions of mystery, sadness, lust and more.
What makes his work so fascinating is the depth of wanderlust that goes into each one without being fully explained, it offers a great sense of imagination yet understanding to the viewer. The imagination and emotion being pulled from the image and onto the public is what has made him so popular. His work can be interpreted in many ways but none are unimpressed. David’s work has been described to tell stories, to open a world and take you in a voyage through the image. The dreamlike landscapes that he captures evokes emotions that bring the attention of the audience into their own imagination full of experiences.
David’s style is one of many, he genuinely prefers not to describe his work. When asked what is supposed to be portrayed most of his responses were along the lines of “I let the audience decide”. And in his mind, for the image to be good enough you need to feel something. Most themes of David’s work are, mysterious, melancholic, and provide solitude to the viewer. David says, “I like looking at things from the inside out and the outside in, so you get both”. This provides an answer to his work involving sex and mystery themes. “His work is often described as epic, spectacular, dramatic, cinematic, dreamy, imaginative, smart, sexy, elegant, unexpected and sometimes even funny – providing something for everyone, by appealing to new patrons of the arts and the most sophisticated of collectors”(Daviddrebin).
When it comes to who inspires him he has said that Tom Wesselmann, a pop artist, and Steve Jobs a business magnate are who inspires him. Big corporations are what David has given credit for his success as well, “I’ve been collaborating with Camera Work in Berlin since 2005, when my art career took off. They guided me through many of my exhibitions across Europe; and they still play a significant role in the business as one of the world’s leading photography institutions”(twenty6magazine). This shows his involvement as an artist comes with a lot of help from the corporations he is involved with. They open the doorway for him to be the photographer he is today. This shows that success is not only within yourself but you can get help and still be world renown, and how success is not all pain.
David is also highly recognizable by his high definition photos of celebrities and models. Giving them a beautiful Virtuous image and canvas to display. Each image filled with passion and solitude of the faces he captures, no image does not invoke strong dazzling emotions. The work is described as magical and out of this world, with little of no digital editing of his photos. Which is why so many high end celebrities have came to him for their photos, even one of my favorite boxers, Manny Pacquiao. The dark display of lighting but strong colors show the intensity of each image. “voyeuristic and psychological viewpoints in his work. He offers the viewer dramatic insight into the emotions and experiences of his subjects, exploring the tensions between humor and sex, melancholy and sex, and melancholy and humor”(Daviddrebin). David only initially started with commercial photography, but over the years he has developed into doing many types of art forms and he now describes himself as being a multidisciplinary artist.
One of my favorite art pieces of David Drebin are his Neon Light Installations. Each one with a phrase that is mean to portray a sassy and melancholic women in the depths of emotion. The illusion is in the femme fatales. A femme fatale is an image of a woman ensuring a lovely danger. The femme fatales portray women who are often dressed up in dark lighting with bright clothes. These women are meant to show the concept of loneliness, lust, and forever in line love. Drebin himself has said that the danger in love is what makes it so exciting to capture these women in these prime states of emotion that aren’t always shown. This brings me to the point of the Neon Light Installations which are directly meant to portray the thoughts and worlds of the women in these images. With cliche dramatic phrases it shows a unique style of how things are all coming together. The story and connection of the femme fatales and the neon lights is what I like most about the epic, spectacular work of David Drebin.
Now, Drebin is associated with many galleries all around the world like Camera Work in Berlin, Galerie de Bellefeuille in Montreal, Fahey Klein in Los Angeles, Atlas Gallery in London, Oliver Cole Gallery in Miami, and Contessa Gallery in Palm Beach who have all displayed his work at Art Shows worldwide. But Drebin didn’t feel fully satisfied or validated by the world until Elton John a famous musician, bought many of his photographs. In the experience Drebin says, “When Elton John bought many of my photographs from a show I had at Fahey Klein in LA in 2005, I felt validated at a time when I was not so sure of myself. I knew I had validated myself internally, but this “external” validation was certainly a confidence booster at the time… He bought many of my works that were very diverse, I don’t really remember the images themselves. I was just so thrilled that Elton and others at the show purchased so many works when I was just thrilled to be part of a group exhibition… I wasn’t even thinking about the sales”(dreamingof.net). Now, I realize this is a big portion of this paragraph but the success in his words is something that really inspires me. This shows that even when you are validated all around you, it takes one person to make all the difference in your confidence. Which is what happens to Drebin, which makes his work so inspirational.
As my essay is coming to an end, there is space to talk about how I feel about Drebins work. As said my favorite work of his are the connections between the neon Light Installations and the femme fatales, but other than that the dreamscapes amaze me. They open my eyes, all of his work does but the dreamscapes are doing the magic. A dreamscape is meant to capture the essence of a dream. A dream is mysterious and eccentric, sometimes scary and sometimes beautiful with images you can only dream about. And in the images shown like “A view above the clouds” and “Electric City” make me feel like I’m looking at a dream. In conclusion, I love all of his work, nothing is boring, and everything has some sort of magical feature.