BROOKLYN, NY.- The Rabbithole Gallery, a contemporary art space in the Dumbo art district in Brooklyn, is pleased to bring together the work of three emerging photographers: Emiliano Granado (Argentina), Julieta Sans (Argentina), and Anouk Kruithof, (the Netherlands), who each bring to their work a very different investigation into portraiture. All three artists explore and deconstruct themes of performance, pose and role play. There will be a special opening reception with the artists on Thursday, May 17 at 7pm, coinciding with the New York Photo Festival. Rabbithole Gallery is located at 33 Washington Street.
Anouk Kruithof, the recipient of this year’s ICP Infinity Award in the category of “Young Photographer” presents two portrait projects: “Becoming Blue” and “Daily Exhaustion.”
In “Becoming Blue,” the subjects are dressed in blue and posed against a plain blue background. Blue is a color generally associated with calm and serenity, yet Anouk turns this expectation on its head when she catches her subjects unawares as she simultaneously presses the shutter release. As a result of this element of surprise, they have not been able to present the expression, pose or gesture they had planned and may have preferred. Anouk deconstructs how her subjects subconsciously/consciously present themselves for the camera.
“The Daily Exhaustion” is the artist’s self-described ‘newspaper-zine’ of self-portraits in which she appears to be physically spent, her face glistening with sweat as she photographs herself over and over again. The close up portraits stretch across a double page spread, bisected through the center of each face by the folds in the newsprint on which the images are printed, creating a set of disjointed masks, as the magazine is pulled apart and spread over one wall. Anouk’s exhaustion replaces the affectation and posing we develop in front of the camera into something more real.
Anouk Kruithof was born 1981 in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. She studied at St. Joost Art Academy in the Netherlands. She is educated as a photographer, but considers photography more as a starting point of various possibilities. She makes photo, video, and spatial installations as well as social–in situation–works, and ‘take away art.’ She is perhaps best known as an obsessive artist bookmaker who has published six highly original books that each embodies a frenetic energy.
Emiliano Granado shows a selection from his portrait series “Time for Print,” which was on view at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago last year. Emiliano spent four years photographing subjects from the Model Mayhem website which connects photographers with self-proclaimed models. Model Mayhem asks for only a handful of requirements from applicants and currently has over half a million ‘models’ on the site available for shoots. The understanding between the photographer and model is that no money change hands. The models give their ‘Time for Print,’ receiving portfolio prints in return for their time. Emiliano compulsively shot hundreds of hopefuls, providing minimal direction, and often no explanation of the purpose of the shoot, thus allowing the subject to bring their own ideas in terms of clothing, set and poses.
“It was important to get a sense of who they were and how they represent themselves,” says Emiliano. “One of my goals was to try to understand the fascination with celebrity and exhibition. After four years of working on this project, I'm still not sure I understand. My interest in other peoples' obsession with being seen is still very much alive.”
Emiliano uses the Polaroid, traditionally a discarded lighting test device for studio portraits. Here these Polaroid portraits are elevated to beautiful one off art objects in their own right.
Emiliano was born in La Plata, Argentina but has lived most of his life in the US. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is a graduate of Amherst College. He works out of Miami and Buenos Aires seasonally. He was included in the American Photography 23, and was chosen as one of PDN's 30 in 2008. His S/S 2011 Converse campaign was selected as part of PDN's Photo Annual.
The young female subjects of Julieta Sans are often actors and artists, always on the edge of ‘becoming’ something. She allows them to become the character they want to be. Some play out their ideal acting role, some become their favorite character from a novel. As they draw from a history of recognizable roles for their performance in front of the camera, Julieta explores the area between what they are trying to show us, and what they inadvertently expose.
The subject of one of Julieta Sans’ portraits, Esmeralda, 27, an amateur actress from South Los Angeles writes: “I have a dream role, two dream roles really. One is to play Wonder Woman and the other would be to play a woman who is striving to be the best that she can be, whatever story that may be that is relative to Mexican roots or a woman who just didn't have the power at first and then she comes into power at the end.”
Julieta was born in Buenos Aires, 1979 and lives and divides her time working between London and Buenos Aires. She studied Photography at EFC in Buenos Aires and Central Saint Martins in London. Her work is shown internationally, and she has received the following recognition: Renaissance Photography Prize 2012, Flash Forward Award 2010, Prix de la Photographie 2009 and 2008, International Photography Awards 2009, and most notably 2nd winner at National Portrait Gallery Photographic Prize 2007.
