Billy Wilder Lighting His Cigar

This photo collage consists of six separate images of Wilder pieced together against a pastel pink background. The use of the analogue film contributes to the formal beauty of the composition as it renders the scene in deep tones of red and orange. A glass of red wine and warm shades of Wilder’s surroundings match the pink background, recalling the vibrant aesthetics of Hockney’s early interior paintings. Against a natural inclination to search for the most central image, the playful composition urges the viewer to study the collage up and down. A sense of scene progression ensues from the movement of our eyes across the image. Because differences between images are subtle, scanning parts of the collage quickly seems to put the central figure and their bodily language in motion. The amalgamation of static images captures the passing of time as we seem to witness the progression of the scene from lighting a cigarette to the moment of smoking. Hockney would speak of his collages as ones, in which space is an illusion as opposed to time. According to the artist, “Time is accounted for in the number of pictures. You know it took time to take them, wait for them, put them down.”