Conversations

Conversations

Through the use of multiple images in Conversations, Gaudiani addresses the concepts of space, time, and context to capture more accurately a person’s character. She chooses subjects whom she has known for thirty minutes or thirty years. The work follows the integrity of the conversation between photographer and subject resulting in a visual totality, which reads like a book, a sheet of music, or a grid. She has had Conversations with thirty-one individuals. Using only two rolls of film, 35mm format, over only fifteen minutes and in natural light, she  takes pictures while talking with the sitter. She asks: “Is there anything you would like to talk about?” and “Do we have permission to talk about anything?” They have talked about alcoholism, incest, child abuse, joys of living, infidelities, lovers’ leaving, and living with cancer. The conversations acquire a ceremonial, confessional aspect.

As Helen Vendler said in 2003, “You are trying to get to a reality in portraiture – grotesque poses as well as glamour.”

Alison Nordstrom wrote in 2004, “That one photographer chooses to stop and to connect with these faces and the selves they reveal, offers us an ongoing conversation to be part of and another way of moving through the world.”

Meredith Goldsmith described “Gaudiani’s photographic installation… a cathedral of communication… almost meditative….” Artweek, 2004