Alex Prager
Alex Prager, born 1979, is an American photographer who was born and currently works in the city of Los Angeles. Many of the photographs in his 2012 “Compulsion” album are related to tragedy and what I find most interesting is that each photograph has a picture of an eye placed next to it that displays an emotion in response to the primary image. One of my favorite photographs is “House Fire”, (located below). I like the contrast between the warm red and orange colors of the fire and the pale yellow house in comparison to the cool greenery of the mountains in the background and the light blue sky. We can see that the eye to the right is of an elder man, possibly belonging to the man who owned the house, and the first emotions that I sense when looking into his eye are anger, frustration, and disappointment.
Another photograph that I found to be very interesting, that was also located in the 2012 “Compulsion” album, is “Roadside Victim”, (located below). I like how Alex Prager used the white lines, which divide the lanes of the road, as a sort of leading line that draws your eyes downward to the bottom left-hand corner. You first notice the car fuming and exhaling a white contrasting smoke into the night air but your eyes then follow the lane dividers down towards the women bent over a dead body lying on the asphalt. Then your eyes continue following the leading line which leads you to the bottom left-hand corner where a savage-looking wolf stands with a growling mouth. The eye to the right of the image is that of a young woman, possibly the eye of the women hunched over the dead body, and the first emotional responses I get when looking into her eye is sadness, fear, and heartbreak.