Deborah, from the series Week– End, 2009

Alex Prager

Every Sunday Foam offers free walk-in workshops inspired by the exhibition <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">Alex Prager</a> - <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">Silver Lake Drive</a>.

The photographs of Alex Prager resemble stills from old Hollywood films, in which nothing is left to chance: from the make-up and posture of the model to the saturated colours, resulting in a bizarre constructed reality in every work. During this workshop, you will create your own portrait. Construct an appropriate setting by using the attributes and clothing and dive into the cinematic atmosphere of Alex Prager. Your best image will be printed to take home.
<a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager"><img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/113697/596x298/a979be2ee9/595desiree_from_the_series_the_big_valley_2008_c_alex_prager_courtesy_alex_prager_studio_and_lehmann_maupin_new_york_hong_kong.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="298" /></a>Desiree, from the series The Big Valley, 2008 &copy; Alex Prager. Courtesy Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul
The walk-in workshops at Foam Studios are suitable for all ages and are made possible by our corporate partner Olympus. Foam provides <a href="https://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/c/cameras/om_d_system_cameras/index.html">Olympus cameras</a> for this workshop. ABOUT THE EXHIBITION In the summer of 2019, Foam will present the second solo-exhibition by <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">Alex Prager</a>, a retrospective of more than ten years of work by the American photographer and filmmaker. It will be the first time that her most significant photo series and video works are all presented in one exhibition. Prager combines fashion, art and popular culture in her heavily stylized images in which women often play the leading role. Her photographs resemble stills from old Hollywood films, in which nothing is left to chance: from the make-up and posture of the model to the saturated colours, resulting in a bizarre constructed reality in every work. <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">&gt; Read more</a>
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with MBAL Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland. Curator Nathalie Herschdorfer.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.

<div class="sidebar__content">WORKSHOP INFO 
Every&nbsp;Sunday* 14.00 - 16.00 hrs
 PRICE Free**&nbsp; 
* until 1 September 2019&nbsp; **&nbsp;excluding <a href="/museum/visitor-information">museum admission</a></div>

Walk-in Workshop Alex Prager

You are invited to join us on 13 June for the official opening of the new exhibition: 

ALEX PRAGER - SILVER LAKE DRIVE<a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager"><img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/113697/596x298/8b1c7ea20d/595desiree_from_the_series_the_big_valley_2008_c_alex_prager_courtesy_alex_prager_studio_and_lehmann_maupin_new_york_hong_kong.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="298" /></a>The Big Valley: Desiree, 2008 &copy; Alex Prager. Image courtesy of Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin New York Hong Kong
From June, Foam presents a retrospective&nbsp;of the work of American photographer Alex Prager (1979, USA). Prager&rsquo;s colourful oeuvre consists of heavily staged images reminiscent of stills from old Hollywood films. Grande productions, meticulously organised, borrowing style elements from film noir, thriller, melodrama and crime fiction in which women play a prominent role. An enigmatic, everlasting reality unfolds in each individual work.
The exhibition opens on Thursday 13 June. You are welcome from 17.30 hours onwards.&nbsp;The exhibition is on view until 4 September 2019.
<a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">&gt; Read more about this exhibition</a>
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with MBAL Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland. Curator Nathalie Herschdorfer.
Visit and revisit <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/alex-prager">Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive</a>, other exhibitions and <a href="https://foam.org/museum/programme/for-members">events</a> as a <a href="https://foam.org/about/memberships">Foam Member</a>.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.

<div class="sidebar__content">Official Opening 
Thursday 13 June 2019 from 17.30 hrs onwards</div>

Official opening:  Alex Prager

On Wednesday 12 June, Foam Fund, Club Foam and Foam Family members are invited for an exclusive preview of the exhibition Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive.

Silver Lake Drive, the second <a href="/museum/programme/alex-prager">solo exhibition</a> by Alex Prager at Foam, is a retrospective of more than ten years of work by the American photographer and filmmaker. It will be the first time that her most significant photo series and video works are all presented in one exhibition.
<a href="/museum/programme/alex-prager"><img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/113697/596x298/16cfcbcb6d/595desiree_from_the_series_the_big_valley_2008_c_alex_prager_courtesy_alex_prager_studio_and_lehmann_maupin_new_york_hong_kong.jpg" alt="" width="596" height="298" /></a> The Big Valley: Desiree, 2008 &copy; Alex Prager. Image courtesy of Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin New York Hong Kong
This preview is exclusively for Foam Fund, Club Foam and Foam Family members and takes place from 18.30 - 20.30 hrs. You can sign up by <a href="mailto:mathilde@foam.org">sending an email</a>, until Tuesday 4 June.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with MBAL Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland. Curator Nathalie Herschdorfer. Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.&nbsp;

<div class="sidebar__content">PREVIEW INFO 
Wednesday 12 June 2019 18.30 - 20.30 hrs This preview is exclusively for <a href="/about/memberships/foam-fund">Foam Fund</a>, <a href="/about/memberships/club-foam">Club Foam</a> and <a href="/about/memberships/foam-family">Foam Family</a>. LANGUAGE Dutch RESERVATIONS Via Mathilde Smit <a href="mailto:mathilde@foam.org">mathilde@foam.org</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

Preview Alex Prager

Enjoy a special viewing of the exhibition Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive outside of regular museum hours.

Explore over ten years of works by Alex Prager&nbsp;undisturbed for hours on end. On Tuesday evening 18 June, Foam opens the doors for a chance to visit and complimentary guided tours. Member Hours are open to Foam support members and employees of Foam's corporate partners. Present your membership or employee card for admission to the museum.
<img src="https://a.storyblok.com/f/113697/595x385/ec4867523c/crowd_9_sunset_five_from_the_series_face_in_the_crowd_2013_c_alex_prager_courtesy_alex_prager_studio_and_lehmann_maupin_new_york_hong_kong_595px_.jpg" alt="" width="595" height="385" /> Crowd #9 (Sunset Five), from the series Face in the Crowd 2013 &copy; Alex Prager / Courtesy Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION Silver Lake Drive is Pragers&nbsp;second solo-exhibition at Foam and shows a retrospect of more than ten years of work by the American photographer and filmmaker.&nbsp;Prager combines fashion, art and popular culture in her heavily stylized images in which women often play the leading role. Her photographs resemble stills from old Hollywood films, in which nothing is left to chance.
<a href="/museum/programme/alex-prager">&gt; Read more about the exhibition</a>
BECOME A FOAM MEMBER. <a href="/about/memberships">JOIN ONLINE</a> TODAY Do you want to join our Member Hours but are not yet a member? Then sign up today and start taking advantage of the many benefits. Foam Members enjoy privileges all year long, including free workshops, exclusive previews and, of course, member hours.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.

<div class="sidebar__content">MEMBER HOURS INFO 
Tuesday 18 June 2019 18.30 - 21.00 hrs guided tours included</div>

Member Hours Alex Prager

Silver Lake Drive, the second solo-exhibition by Alex Prager at Foam, is a retrospective of more than ten years of work by the American photographer and filmmaker.

In 2012, the American artist Alex Prager (1979, Los Angeles) won the&nbsp;Foam Paul Huf Award&nbsp;for her series&nbsp;Compulsion. Seven years later, Prager returns to Foam with an exhibition Silver Lake Drive.&nbsp;Prager&rsquo;s work is cinematic, drawing inspiration from her surroundings, personal experiences, street photography, pop culture and film. She utilises a range of style elements reminiscent of early film genres such as film noir, thriller, melodrama and crime fiction. Women have frequently been the protagonist in Prager&rsquo;s work, driven by emotion. Through the use of saturated colours and familiar imagery, Prager is able to create her own unique world where she explores darker topics in a seductive and unsettling way.
Prager&rsquo;s work is rooted in the photographic tradition of William Eggleston, Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman, each of whom mastered the art of freezing the indeterminable everyday moment. Prager&rsquo;s oeuvre consists of heavily staged, large format images using rich colours. Her photographs can be seen as &lsquo;single frame narratives&rsquo; that capture enigmatic stories within the edges of the frame. Both her photographs and films are characterised by the absence of a linear narrative; each of the works recounts a bizarre, perpetual unreality.
ABOUT ALEX PRAGER Alex Prager is self-taught. Her career took flight after her work was exhibited in the MoMA exhibition&nbsp;New Photography&nbsp;(2010). In 2012, she was awarded the&nbsp;Foam Paul Huf Award&nbsp;and her series&nbsp;Compulsion&nbsp;was exhibited in Foam. Her work has since been exhibited around the world in a range of prominent galleries and museums. Prager&rsquo;s photographs have been featured in publications including&nbsp;Foam Magazine, New York Times Magazine, American Vogue, W Magazine&nbsp;and&nbsp;Art in America. Her work features in the collections of numerous museums, including Foam, MoMA in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthaus Z&uuml;rich and Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with MBAL Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland. Curator Nathalie Herschdorfer.
Visit and revisit Alex Prager - Silver Lake Drive, other exhibitions and <a href="/museum/programme/for-members">events</a> as a <a href="/about/memberships">Foam Member</a>. Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.
Prager&rsquo;s native city of Los Angeles serves as both a source of inspiration and the backdrop to many of her series, such as&nbsp;Polyester&nbsp;(2007),&nbsp;Week-end&nbsp;(2010) and&nbsp;Compulsion&nbsp;(2012). Although the images appear to be capturing fleeting moments, they are preceded by a laborious production process. For her film&nbsp;Face in the Crowd&nbsp;(2013), for example, Prager had a team of more than 150 people at her disposal, in addition to 350 extras and a collection of props that the artist amassed over a period of 12 years. By composing her work using elements of decor, Prager sketches the framework of an open-ended story before allowing the viewer to complete the narrative.
Prager&rsquo;s most recent film,&nbsp;La Grande Sortie, consists of photographs and film images shot against the backdrop of the Opera Bastille in Paris. The series leads the viewer on a journey through the emotions that a prima ballerina (Emilie Cozette) experiences during her dance performance &ndash; ranging from being moved to sheer panic. The film concludes the retrospective and is a homage to the equally banal and fantastical hyper reality that is inherent to film and theatre and the silver screen.

Foam welcomes an exhibition by Alex Prager (Los Angeles, 1979), the winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award 2012. The prize is organised by Foam and awarded annually to a young, promising international photographer under 35. Part of the prize is an exhibition at Foam.

Alex Prager - Compulsion

Opening Foam Talent, 2022

The Photographers' Gallery

Musée de l'Elysée

Jeu de Paume

Fotomuseum Winterthur & Fotostiftung Schweiz

Musée de la Photographie

Photography Forum Frankfurt

FORMA

FoMu

Fotografiska

Pink Ladies and Pear, 2012

Opening of recommended Olympus Fellowship at Foam

Experience all Foam activities and partner institutes in an exclusive way. You can also gift a membership.

become a member

Support a specific project

Donate

Leave a legacy

More ways to support

Partner institutes

Scent from Heaven, Still from the Film No. 3, 2023

Award prize

Selection criteria

The 19th winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award will be revealed on Thursday 12 June 2025.

Shortlist revealed for Foam Paul Huf Award 2025

Winner Foam Paul Huf Award 2024

Hiền Hoàng

Under an Ideology, part of Asia Bistro - Made in Rice, digital image, 2020

Jury 2024

Hoàng uses food symbolism and unconventional surfaces to demonstrate the stereotypes that exist in Western narratives with regards to Asian culture.

Most recent exhibitions

All winners

About Paul Huf

Foam Talent Call

Foam 3h

back to the overview

Other talent inititatives

Foam Paul Huf Award

 in 2009. Using c-print as the medium, the artwork is displayed at 60 x 83 cm.

Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the VandenEnde Foundation and the City of Amsterdam.

In 2021 Foam receives additional support from the Mondriaan Fund and Kickstart Cultuurfonds

visible in

Deborah

Foam Collection

Mariage á Loèche-les-Bains (Marriage in Leukerbad), from the series Ekaterina, 2012-16

Current Study #3, 2013

#14 from the series Sun Set, 2011

Boys of Walthamstow, 2018

Maldoror #6, 2014

Bouquet V, 2008

The Crossroads from the series My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, 2014

w Face, 23 March, Tokyo, Japan, 2015

Cosmic Chakra, 2016

Pat Blake for Vogue NY 1954

Collection

'Boy Playing Girl', Janakpur, Nepal, 2016 from the series A Myth of Two Souls, 2013 - ongoing

Aike, 2016

Untitled (Two Girls Embrace), 2018

Fashion

Our full collection

Search Results

Daisuke Yokota, 2016

Previous winners and exhibitions

For more information and visual material please contact the Press Office of Foam via pressoffice@foam.org.