Photographers

Alex Prager (born 1979 in Los Angeles) is an American photographer and filmmaker known for her highly staged, cinematic images that blend influences from classic Hollywood, Technicolor, film noir, and experimental cinema. Her photographs often feature choreographed crowds, stylized costumes, saturated colors, and constructed narratives, creating scenes that feel both familiar and uncanny. Prager explores themes of identity, memory, emotional tension, and the psychological experience of modern life through meticulously directed productions.

Her early series, such as “Polyester,” “The Big Valley,” and “Week-End,” introduced her signature use of heightened drama and stylized femininity. Later bodies of work, including “Compulsion,” “Face in the Crowd,” and large-scale public installations, expanded her exploration of media culture, voyeurism, and collective behavior. Prager frequently works with trained actors and detailed sets, merging photography and cinema into unified, narrative-driven imagery.

In addition to photography, Prager has directed numerous short films and commercial works. Her film “Touch of Evil,” produced for The New York Times Magazine, won an Emmy Award and cemented her reputation as an artist able to move fluidly between still and moving images. Her films share the same heightened theatricality and symbolic approach as her photographs, emphasizing emotion and fragmented storytelling.

Prager’s work is included in major institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and other international museums. She has exhibited widely in solo and group shows around the world and continues to create ambitious visual narratives that bridge photography, cinema, and performance.