Photographer & filmmaker Alex Prager discusses her work on the opening day of her exhibition Silver Lake Drive. The discussion is followed by a screening of Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter.

Alex Prager’s distinctive works cross the worlds of art, fashion, photography and film, exposing the human melodrama and dark unsettling undercurrents that are threaded through her subject matter. Referencing the aesthetic principals of mid twentieth century Hollywood cinema and fashion photography, as well as such photographers as William Eggleston, Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman, each of her images is packed with a multitude of emotional layers and narrative possibilities.

This talk, given on the occasion of her exhibition at the photographers' Gallery (15 Jun - 14 Oct), 'Silver Lake Drive', is followed by a screening of Charles Laughton’s 1955 American masterpiece The Night of the Hunter, selected by Alex Prager. Part expressionist horror movie, part luminous fairytale, The Night of the Hunter follows a fake preacher, Robert Mitchum who insinuates himself into the family of his former cellmate in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of a hoard of stolen money – but when charm fails to work, he opts for more brutal tactics. The Night of the Hunter contains some of the most haunting images in cinema.