For his series Super Heroes, photographer Gregg Segal followed the men and women who dress up as characters outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood to find out what their far less glamorous, off-duty lives look like. The resulting images — which include Superman vacuuming his apartment and Wonder Woman sweeping her backyard — are amusing, but as Segal explains, they also reveal a possible impetus behind the career choice.
“While I photographed Batman, a family pulled over to take his picture,” he writes. “He strode up to them with super hero confidence and the children approached him with awe. He was Batman because he was Batman to them. Then later, in his apartment, when he’d taken off his mask and cape and was reheating leftovers in the microwave, he was merely ordinary. I could see what drew him back to Hollywood Boulevard.” Click through for some of our favorite photos from the series.
Courtesy of Gregg Segal
Comments (24)
These photos are great! They remind me of this video featuring Spider-Man: http://vimeo.com/22220022
These photos are way too derivative of Dulce Pinzon’s project from 2006 or 2005 called “The Real Superheros”, in which she photographed illegal immigrants dressed in costume as their favorite superheros while at their jobs as domestics, construction workers, delivery peeps, etc. These photographs are visually so derived from those that it is troubling. They are almost identical, except that they have been drained of social content and become kitsch.
Pinzon’s photos can be seen here: http://www.dulcepinzon.com/en_projects_superhero.htm
Abigail: thank you for sharing the link to Pinzon’s photos! I must disagree with your assessment (dismissal) of Segal’s work here. Pinzon dressed her subjects up to make her point. Segal’s subjects choose to live their lives this way (although I’m sure, like the NY immigrants, these folks are simply trying their best to earn a living). The context here is completely different–this is a peek into the private lives of these public characters. It’s often a somewhat sad/bizarre effect.
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Dulce Pinzon’s has this project as a solo show in the Queens Museum, Brooklyn Library, Monclear Museum (as part as the first retrospective of Comics of superheroes on an American Museum), the Y Gallery. And that is just in New York (it’s been show all over the world inclusive an upcoming show at the Andy Warhol Museum). These series were in a full page in The New York Times, Daily News, TimeoutNY etc,etc. Even and interview in channel NY1. Pinzon’s project is super well known in the arts scene, so this project is way to similar to hers.
I’ve seen Pinzon’s work & pictures in several exhibitions, magazines and museums and I can assure you she’s been doing this for a long time. In my opinion this is theft, robbery. Is way too similar, more than “coincidence” I smell lawsuit here.
I agree with Abigail.
NO brain asshole!
Dulce Pinzón
Gregg, you blew it! New York and global galleries, museums and art media have known Dulce Pinzon’s original work for many years. Unless you do research on critically acclaimed contemporary artists, you will embarrass yourself.
ffff are you living in a cave or what? This is Dulce Pinzon’s better well known project (not just in U.S.) and there is NO WAY to look at your photos like an un-ethic (and bad) copy of her concept.
In her series, the concept is perfectly round and articulated, in your case… well, let´s be honest: you just mess it up.
Esto es vil plagio del y al trabajo de Dulce Pinzón. Denota pereza mental y oportunismo de lo más aberrante.
your copy off Dulce Pinzòn!!!!! fake!!
you inspired in the work of Dulce Pinzon?
This a bad bad bad copy of the work of Dulce Pinzon!!!!
FAKE, FAKE, FATAL FAKE!
Para que hacer tanto escándalo los puntos de vista son diferentes e incluso el montaje fotográfico de este proyecto tiene mas calidad fotográfica que el de Pinzón, por otro lado es infame que Pinzón mueva su maquinaria contra una persona que quizá ni la conozca, por otro lado el proyecto ya era de por si explotado por otros autores antes de Dulce, y para terminar, Dulce, sabes bien que tu discurso es un fraude, tus indocumentados son plantados, entonces a que debemos el NO brain asshole! ?
This artwork is already done by Dulce Pinzon, is very well known since many years ago.
Absolute copy of Dulce Pinzon. As an artist, you constantly research artists working in you Genre, I can’t believe this was an innocent act. I find this quite shameful.
Shame on you ASSHOLE!!!! There´s no art in what you did.
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News Flash: contrary to local opinion, New York is not the center of the world. Simply because something was done there does not make it automatic that “everyone” knows about it. I view several media aggregate sites and had not seen Pinzon’s work.
I do, however, live in Los Angeles and am very aware of the costumed folks who pose for pictures. It’s a pretty obvious throughline to think of shooting them in their home environs while still in costume. In fact, it was probably easier than talking them into doing it out of them.
So, lighten up on the plagiarism accusations – it’s a pretty serious charge to throw around based on flimsy circumstantial evidence. Some of the rest of us manage to go weeks/months/years without the cultural goings-on of New York entering our minds.
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