Flor Garduño
Thessa Herold,Paris
Photography should not be shown merely as a physical representation of a being or a thing. Through its own appearance it should contribute a change in the way of looking and in the observer. Its first conquest is, of course, the person who fires the shutter. One may speak of magic, but I prefer to speak of “gazes”. I base my conviction on the tiny difference between the gaze of a creator and that of an amateur, even though the magic exists.
Flor Garduño’s photographic work has been characterized by its unveiling certain situations that would otherwise remain hidden and unattainable. What is singular, unusual, what arouses curiosity, has often been the keynote of the discourses on photography, but in “Vestals” an exhibition featured by Thessa Herold Gallery this has been replaced by the essence. What the spectators encounter when they enter the exhibition space is not a classic vision, or an excess of reflection, but rather, an aesthetic rereading of the body and of its nudity.
The questions Flor Garduño poses are transmuted into answers concerning the origin of beauty. Whether they reflect mysticism or a mere search, the artist’s photographs take on an irrational kind of presence that she reveals through simple elements from the ordinary, everyday life they sometimes transcend. A common strategy characterizes the encounter between these elements flowers, feathers, leaves, fruits and the female figures it involves. What at first sight appears to be merely circumstantial operates almost as a meditation that allows the artist to approach this encounter with the knowledge of the real dimension of the space she photographs. It is possible to sense, from the way in which the photographs have been taken, that they have been inspired by an intimate gesture, a private gesture. That gesture allows Garduño to construct an image charged with feeling, which results in a very personal vision of the nude. No exaggerate framing effect invades the image; only the contrasts of blacks and whites allow the immediacy of the body to transcend. Without privileging detail, with no visual effects or eye-catching flashes fired directly into the faces. Before the lens, only the naked bodies, which seem to abandon themselves with utter naturalness, holding a dialogue among themselves through the suggestive power of the image.
The nude, despite the classical connotation that is attributed to that term, is a subject matter like any other, neither more nor less original. However, by co-opting that universal image in a contemporary manner, the artist creates a staging in which harmony and artistic rigor hold a dialogue with the subtly elegant female figures. Featuring an aesthetics of strange and dis- quieting sensuality, each photograph in black and white abandons itself to its own individuality and invites the viewer to be part of a completely new contemplative experience.
Because of their humane nature, of their status in society, women have propounded a different point of view of the world, just like Julia Margaret Cameron, a pioneer in the field of photography from the very beginning, did in her time. Flor Garduño conducts the viewer towards a modern photography, a photography of our time, nourished by multiple references that reach us across the centuries.
