Born 1971, New York, USA

Anthony Goicolea's identity forms the starting point of his work. As a New York based Cuban-American there has been focus on his appearance since childhood. This focus hasn't left him as his features have remained remarkably youthfull. Now he uses these distinguishing traits as the subject for the research of his own sexuality and heritage. The results are very narrative and often combine properties of the still life and portraiture. Using himself as a model he seems to be fascinated by the development of sexuality in adolescent boys. In a western culture that glorifies eternal youth he tries to find images of shame, doubt and lust. An interest that can be seen in the light of the experiences with his own homosexuality.

Besides these photographs Goicolea's uses pencil drawing to further his investigation into his own past. By creating negatives of his relatives and attaching them to trees like images of lost people he comments on cultural dislocation.  Here again he combines the strength of a portrait with the values of a still life. He tries to explain the feeling of beïng nostalgic for a culture he was never part of. In his photographs of decayed urban locations he comments on the supposed progress of civilization by showing the entropy of modern architecture in a barren landscape. In these images the sky seems to take on the role of the bearer of bad tidings.

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