title: A Storybook Life
author: Philip-Lorca diCorcia
description: One of the most influential and innovative photographers working today, Philip-Lorca diCorcia is known for creating images that are poised between documentary and theatrically staged photography. His practice takes everyday occurrences beyond the realm of banality, infusing what would otherwise appear to be insignificant gestures with psychology and emotion. DiCorcia employs photography as a fictive medium capable of creating uncanny, complex realities out of seemingly straightforward compositions. As such, his work is based on the dichotomy between fact and fiction and asks the viewer to question the assumed truths that the photographic image offers. Born in 1951 in Hartford, Connecticut, diCorcia received his M.F.A. from Yale University in 1979. Since 2007, he has been represented by David Zwirner, where he has had two solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York: Thousand in 2009 and Eleven in 2011. The artist s Hustlers series (1990-1992) is currently on view at David Zwirner in New York (September 12 November 2, 2013), which coincides with the publication of a large-scale book by steidldangin, also titled Hustlers. Concurrently exhibited at David Zwirner in London is the artist s East of Eden series (September 25 November 16, 2013). In 2013, a major survey of the artist s work was organized by the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. The exhibition will travel to the Museum De Pont, Tilburg, The Netherlands (October 2013 January 2014) and The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, England (Spring 2014). Recent museum solo exhibitions include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2008) and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2007). In 1993, the artist s first museum solo exhibition was organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. DiCorcia was named one of Martell s 2012 Artists of the Year, which was accompanied by a touring exhibition in China. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide and a selection of photographs was recently on view in I Spy: Photography and the Theater of the Street, 1938-2010 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Also in 2012 the artist presented a new large-scale installation work, titled Best Seen, Not Heard, which was displayed alongside paintings by Edward Hopper in the eponymous retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris. This work is shown for the first time in the United States at David Zwirner, New York, on the occasion of the Hustlers exhibition. Works by diCorcia are held in public collections internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofa, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum De Pont, Tilburg, The Netherlands; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in New York and currently teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
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  CHAKA
  
  THOMAS MOFOLO
  
  NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY DANIEL P. KUNENE
  
  FOREWORD BY WAMUWI MBAO
  
  Kwela Books
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Foreword
  
  A boy is born from an illicit union between a dissipated king and a young
  maiden. His father is pressured into sending him away, and the boy’s place is
  usurped by his brothers. The boy is bullied and tormented. He learns to fight
  back. He grows into a young man, who distinguishes himself militarily before a
  benevolent patron, and he becomes an exemplar in his field. He returns, a
  celebrated hero, scattering the pretenders to the throne, and becomes the
  leader of his people. His hubris gets the better of him, and he degenerates
  into madness before being overthrown by his brothers, who kill him.
  
  This dry convoy of facts is the skeleton of Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka, a story
  with a solid anchoring in the traditional, and yet, one that constantly
  overspills its pages, haunting, disturbing, melodramatic at times, but always
  captivating the reader.
  
  Mofolo i