Chad Moore’s photos make you want to call your BFFs and schedule a hang sesh ASAP. Since 2008, the Florida-born, New York-based artist has been capturing his new home in saturated chromogenic color. By shooting the same group of downtown kids who navigate young adulthood alongside him — getting naked, hooking up, blissing out, and passing out — his work conveys a strange sense of stability in the city that never sleeps. Adventures might be unpredictable, but friendships are rock-solid. Moore’s own ride-or-dies include Julia Cumming, Lili Sumner, Petra Collins, and Tilda Lindstam, exactly the sort of creative types you might naturally bump into on the path from BMX biker to Ryan McGinley protégé to bona fide fine artist.
marks Moore’s first NYC solo show, comprised of photos taken between 2011 and 2017. One of the most compelling images is of three friends spooning on a futon after a night out in Paris, circa 2014. It looks like Moore has casually crawled out from the tangled bodies to snap a photo before fixing a hangover fry-up. Another shows Canadian anti-model Alana Derksen gazing into Moore’s camera, all wide eyes, buzzed hair, and knees inscribed with “Larry David” tatts. “I find it difficult photographing someone that I don’t care about deeply,” Moore told i-D last year. And if photographing those people looks so magical, why bother trying to change that?
“Whatever’s in me is whatever’s in you” is on view at New York’s agnès b. Galerie Boutique from June 10 through July 30, 2017. An opening reception takes place June 10, 6-8pm.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Chad Moore