Steven Parrino 1986

Curator: The photograph before us, titled "Steven Parrino," was taken in 1986 by David Robbins. It's a gelatin silver print. Editor: My first thought? What a gaze! Piercing and intense, but also… slightly playful, maybe? I feel like I’m being let in on a secret. And those glasses—instantly iconic, like a Warhol screen test somehow condensed into one black and white moment. Curator: Absolutely. Robbins’ work often explores the construction of artistic persona, especially in the context of the 1980s art scene. He questions how artists cultivate an image and the impact of that image on their reception. Parrino, known for his deconstructed canvases, was very much part of that milieu. Editor: So this is image *as* performance, the portrait becoming this almost ready-made persona that Parrino's cultivated through... well, through his gaze and trademark eyewear? You know, this picture feels almost a little bit… deliberately awkward. Like he's inverting traditional portraiture. Curator: Exactly. By choosing a simple, almost yearbook-like composition, Robbins points to how easily image becomes branding, a commodity. And it begs questions about how an artist gains visibility and legitimacy within an increasingly commercialized art world. There's a sort of anti-heroic stance. Editor: But the inherent mystery that image making can bring… Robbins gives him that space in what is more than anything, to my eyes, an empathetic portrayal, not simply one about ironic distance, though there's surely plenty of that. The slight smile. Parrino is clearly playing the role, but on whose terms, truly? That tension is delicious. I also appreciate Robbins' commitment to keeping the process very hands on. Curator: Robbins was examining that shift towards commodification of the artist's persona; to dissect, almost, the inner workings of celebrity through photographic means. His engagement goes hand in hand with that of his peers from the Pictures Generation group who embraced appropriation as an essential art-making process. Editor: Right, by photographing Parrino, Robbins almost co-opts Parrino's identity, inserting him into his own artistic statement about identity creation. Which sounds like quite a bit of risk…but somehow he keeps things honest and unpretentious, you can still recognize and feel that raw person on the picture… I appreciate this commitment, its risks! Curator: In essence, Robbins presents the image as something that’s always mediated. Something both manufactured and revealing at the same time. Editor: Precisely, It gives the image—this singular shot—an almost endless capacity for meaning.