Quantum Photography Season 3 Artist Interview: Elinor Carucci
We sat down with Elinor Carucci to learn more about her vision and what brought her to create the collection "Closer".
Born 1971 in Jerusalem, Israel, Elinor Carucci graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in photography. Across four celebrated monographs, Carucci exposes an emotionally honest world flooded with color.
Elinor Carucci is renowned for sensuous portraits of her family and herself. Closer reveals the breadth of her work, from the erotic to the ethereal, exposing an emotionally honest world flooded with color.
We sat down with Elinor Carucci to learn more about her vision and what brought her to create the collection "Closer." You can now find this inspiring collection on Opensea.
Quantum
Who have been your biggest artistic influences, and why?
Elinor Carucci
My biggest artistic influences are the photographers’ Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and Mary Ellen Mark. All three of them had something in their work that deeply touched me and motivated me to find and explore those elements in my own work. Nan's work is always honest, direct, and raw. Sally's work is dramatic, theatrical, and stunningly beautiful. And Mary Ellen's work is so moving; she always found a way to connect to people and show us so much about humanity. I'm also significantly influenced by the work of stand-up comedians and their art, often being drawn from autobiographical sources, as is mine. Stand-up comedians use humor to bring their ideas in and sometimes deliver harsh truths; I feel that I use aesthetics and beauty to do that. I admire the work of Louis CK, Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle, and Margaret Cho.
Quantum
What was the process of creating the artwork for this collection?
Elinor Carucci
The process of creating the artwork for this collection was both technical and emotional. Technically, I had to master working with lights, composition, and working with colors. I had to make sure I knew how to compose, produce and create the self-portraits, and install myself into the frames: many times, using my skills as an actress, I had studied acting for 4 years when I was younger. I had to use those to perform parts of my own life and relieve them somehow. I had to become emotionally available and to have my life always accessible to the camera. I had lights spread throughout my home and always had the camera on a self-timer and ready to go. The lines between my art and my life have blurred; actually, they have completely disappeared. And I had to become technically, emotionally, and conceptually aware of what I was doing, in many ways being in control, but in other ways being totally loose, open, vulnerable, yet performative.
Quantum
Precisely what is it you want to say with this collection, and how do you get your artwork to say that?
Elinor Carucci
In this collection, Closer, I wanted the work to talk about the core of being a human being. I was trying to go to the most personal and private parts of my life, to reach deep in, and then create images that are talking about universal themes such as being a daughter, being a mother, and the microcosm that exists within a family., The love, the connection, the dependency, and how complex those relationships are, how everything actually exists in this sphere of family life. I'm also focusing on the female identity, on being a woman, the relationship of mother and daughter, the female body, and the break away from home and into the first significant romantic relationship. In a way, it's a body of work about coming of age, but in a way that I hope will resonate with many people.
Quantum
Is there a piece that embodies the overall collection and can you share the story behind it?
Elinor Carucci
I can't say that there is one piece that embodies the overall collection Closer, one that was created over almost a decade. Yet, I can think of one image; the image Mother puts on my lipstick, one that I took in 1993, in many ways led the way to how the rest of this work was created. This image was taken with the self-timer, and in it, I was trying to create the metaphor of the lipstick as something my mother wanted to put on me in order to protect me, in order to somehow send me outside to the world and away from home more beautiful, stronger, attractive - attractiveness to my mom equaled strength and the ability to have opportunities, which is something I oppose to and agree with at the same time. Love and hate at the same time.
But to my surprise, I saw so much in this image when I looked at it, I saw many things that I feel I have never seen and understood had I not taken this picture. So in a way, I realize that I understand myself and my life much better and in a much deeper way when I photograph it. And so, in a way, it sparked my curiosity, and I started to photograph many aspects of my life, in order to stare back at them, to understand them, to understand myself better, and also the people around me and the relationship I have with them. I take pictures in order to understand life. My own and the lives around me.
Also another early image: My Parents, 1994
The photograph My Parents, 1994, was taken while I was still living in my parents’ basement, a few months before I left home. I look at this picture now and see that even though I always thought of my mother as a strong, almost invincible, woman, I saw the vulnerability in her at that day.
A few years after I took this image, my parents’ marriage started to hurt, and they eventually divorced. Looking at this photograph now, knowing what I know, I think it was with the camera that I was able to see deeper into my mother and the emotional state she was in, her needs, her frustration, her weakness.
I started photographing my mother when I was fifteen. It was the experience of photographing her that made me decide I want to be a photographer.
Photographing my mother made me see so much more, about her, in her, of her. It made me feel and understand more, to the point where I never wanted to be the person I was without the camera again. I wanted to be able to see so much more of everything, the same way I did when I pointed the camera at my mother. My mother opened up to me completely…there were no boundaries, no doubts. Like a typical Jewish/Israeli Mama, she devoted herself to whatever her children decided to pursue.
She made photography be about what is it to me to this day; intimacy, openness, confrontations, love, generosity, sacrifice, kindness, intensity, connection, about the ultimate giving.
Just like motherhood. For me, motherhood and photography will forever be connected. I love my mother, and she is my muse to who I am as a photographer, as a woman, as the mother that I am today.
Quantum
How did you first encounter NFTs and Cryptoart, and when did it click for you that there was a lot of potential here?
Elinor Carucci
When I realized that the NFT medium can finally answer the limited ability that fine art photographers face many times, when they want to create something that is one-of-a-kind, I became very interested. I also have, over the last few years, realized how the digital era can open opportunities for artists and photographers, how connecting to people on social media can free artists and photographers from The gatekeepers and allows for ways to have us connect directly to our audiences, and have our art reach globally, NFT way the continuation of the enormous potential that exist in the digital era for artists to connect with audiences and to create art, there is a one-of-a-kind, for our collectors to have.
Charity components: The artist has agreed to donate 2.5% of primary sale revenue to a charity of their choice. Quantum will allocate 2.5% of primary sale revenue to carbon reduction initiatives.
Artist Socials:
Twitter: @carucci_studio
Instagram: @elinorcarucci
Website: http://www.elinorcarucci.com/index.php
Mint this project here Mint "Closer"