The American photographer Roe Ethridge isn’t precious about titles. For his latest exhibitions with Gagosian, recently opened in Gstaad and London (through 8 and 28 September, respectively), he made an inventory of various labels. ‘I made a list of the most prominent themes of selected images,’ he clarifies, recounting over email how he arrived at the moniker for this new pair of shows, ‘Happy Birthday Louise Parker II’. ‘First was “Louise Parker”, then “Birthday” came in at second or third, and immediately the phrase “Happy Birthday Louise Parker” came to mind. I had always imagined the portrait of her sitting in the red chair [Louise in a Chair for Double (2015)] as a picture of her at her imaginary birthday party.’
Parker, whose image is the central though not sole motif of the two shows – described by the gallery as ‘a pair of different but interconnected selections’ – has been a part of Ethridge’s orbit since the early 2010s, when she was streetcast for an editorial he was shooting. ‘She was a student of Stephen Shore at Bard college and was already aware of what I was up to as a photographer,’ he shares. ‘We never talked about it much, the collaboration has always been pretty effortless. She’s actually coming to Gstaad on 22 August, which coincides with the big Polo match [The Hublot Polo Gold Cup] in the city. We are hoping to make a picture of her with the Polo match in the background!’
