It was through Life Framer’s “Animal Kingdom” competition that I discovered Gabriela Guganovic’s work. I found her series Imagine beautiful and unique. Looking around further on her portfolio website, I saw the series Everyday Stillness and was really intrigued. The subject matter of food and drink items on a white tablecloth is similar to that of Laura Letinsky’s photography, but there’s something more going on in Guganovic’s pictures. The presence of animal parts adds an element of mystery and oddity to the photographs, nodding to time’s passing and the inevitable decay of all things. Each image is thoughtfully and intentionally constructed, with perfect lines and placement and gorgeous textures, even (and especially) when those textures are in the vast fields of white cloth or moody shadows. The series has me thinking also of Tara Sellios, Marian Drew, and Sam Taylor-Wood’s A Little Death.
From the artist’s statement: Everything on our table, whether utilitarian or organic, has its own dignity and beauty. Each has a reason for its existence. Combining these articles with a faint touch of decay evokes a feeling of time, recognition of loneliness and nostalgia. These images are collectively reflecting on everyday stillness, quiet, solitude and mystery, with combined elements of discomfort and familiarity. Well directed lighting enhances the transparent qualities of table settings that usually goes unobserved. I am not interested solely in the surface appearance of these things, but prefer to include their inner structural and emotional core, their density of form and feeling. There is spiritual significance in this density of matter- something timeless, immortal and surprising. Decay starts straight after things are born.
From “Everyday Stillness”
Visit artist's site: gabrielafineartphotography.com
Posted January 27th, 2016
