Biography of Leigh Ledare
The true complexity of contemporary life is evident in the startling photographic work of Leigh Ledare. He is adept at finding insights into human relationships and taboos through images that can be both provocative and disconcerting. Often drawing on his personal life, Ledare's work forms a narrative focused on his tumultuous relationships with art collectors, family, friends, and lovers.
A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Columbia University, Leigh Ledare was born in Seattle in 1976. He now lives and works in New York City. He first came to prominence with the publication of his artist book entitled Pretend You're Actually Alive, 2000-8 which provides a close examination of the complicated relations between the artist and his mother. For this work the photographs of his mother, posing nude or having sex with a boyfriend, were offset by more personal and heartfelt family images. The work was a huge success and the questions it raised over the function of subjectivity in contemporary culture are still resonating. Revealingly, Ledare regards the spectator's interpretation of his relationship with his mother as telling more about them than it does about himself.