For an array of patently obvious reasons, lips can be erotic, so naturally they’re a recurring motif for L.A. photographer Tyler Shields.
The enfant terrible is known for his provocative and controversial imagery, as well as for designations that include “Hollywood’s Favourite Photographer” (Daily Mail) and “The New Andy Warhol” (L.A. Weekly).
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Lips—drooling, licking, yelling—are on full display at Tinney Contemporary in an eponymous exhibit of Shields’ work that runs through Nov. 29. One work, entitled Mouthful, features ruby red lips doing what lips do, from smoking to suggesting. Another image is Chanel Acid, a visual trip of scarlet lips that frame a tab of acid resting on a glossy tongue, drool spilling over. The dissolving paper square isn’t just a run-of-the-mill tab of acid—of course not, this is Shields we’re talking about. The fading words read “N°5 CHANEL PARIS ACID,” as Shields unabashedly communicates the glamorous decadence of American life.
Chanel Acid reveals the technical brilliance for which Shields is known. It was created with a Hasselblad camera, a custom lens, phenomenal lighting and Fuji chrome film, but what takes it from great to groundbreaking is the texture imparted by the saliva.
“This poor girl sat there and just had spit just coming down her mouth, just dripping out,” Shields says. “It makes the photo. I remember that when the spit came, that was when the photo came to life.”
This vein of extravagant sensuality has made Shields one of the hottest artists of the contemporary scene. His work is intense, and includes edgy portraits of Hollywood celebrities, from a blood-soaked Lindsay Lohan to Emma Roberts biting into a stack of Benjamins.
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Shields has been compared to Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Richard Avedon. Like them, Shields courts controversy. When he allowed an alligator to gnaw on a $100,000 crocodile-skin Hermès Birkin handbag for one photo, he infuriated two subcultures—fashion editors and animal-rights activists—in one master stroke. Most notoriously, he photographed comedian Kathy Griffin holding a “bloody” Donald Trump mask in one hand, à la the French Revolution. An uproar ensued, but to hear Shields tell it, the photo was a fluke.
“The Kathy thing completely happened in the moment,” he says. “There was no pre-planning to it at all. It literally was like, ‘I have three frames of film left, so I'll finish up this roll with this photo and then we’ll be done.’”
What wasn’t an afterthought is Rolls Royce Explosion, which was meticulously planned with a crew, a demolition expert, and a fire truck. The resulting image is a crisp commingling of beauty and destruction.
“A lot of people were very sad when we blew up the car, but destruction is a form of creation,” he says. “That car, 100 years from now, might be a rust bucket. But that photograph will live on forever.”