LEIGH LEDARE, AN INVITATION, 2012
Seven large-scale lithographic montages and an accompanying contract comprise An Invitation (2012), a project that resulted from an unusual request. Ms. –, a socially connected figure from a prominent family who was fascinated with Ledare’s series of photographs of and with his mother, invited him to her home and commissioned him to take erotic photographs of her for her private use…
LEIGH LEDARE, PERSONAL COMMISSIONS, 2008
For the project Personal Commissions Ledare answered Women Seeking Men personal advertisements posted in various New York City newspapers. While primarily serving as a vehicle for seeking out companionship, these ads often referenced phrases such as “tribute”, which only thinly disguised the subjects’ participation within an underground economy of intimacy, sexual gratification and material validation…