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Disarmingly Androgynous
2011-06-02 20:11
What:
'Disarming': Fashion Photography by Gabriella de Martino
Where:
Carré Doré Gallery
When: 7 to 19 June 2011
Model and photographer
Gabriella de Martino's new exhibition is called 'Disarming', and her images are precisely that, daring the viewer to ignore stereotypes of beauty, and to examine afresh what it is that makes human beings attractive. Her focus on androgynous figures, and her deployment of fashion, help to express ideas such as sexual freedom; and her models' veiled sense of melancholy and their steady and intense gaze challenge us to drop - just for a moment - the puritanical mask, and to wonder at the ineffable beauty of the world around us.
Gabriella started modelling at the age of 14 and set off three years
later to travel and learn foreign languages. Her show is built up of
both single portraits and extended series produced in the last two
years. Her strongest influence has been the Japanese artist Michio Yasui
with whom she has travelled throughout France, though she now works
from her studio in London.
De Martino is passionate about her craft: "Photography, for me, is the lack of the need to talk. I like to picture and visualise the beauty of imperfection". She deliberately avoids choosing 'perfect' models: "I need people who have stories to tell with their eyes: some are professional models, others are girls I just spot in the street or on the bus. They usually attract me for some special quirk: freckles, their silhouette, their nose or mouth, their pathos. I am attracted by vices like alcohol and smoke, I love the idea of torment more than that of a soul in peace."
Many of her photographs are monochrome. "I love to see the world in black and white," she says. "It's intense and profound, but also straightforward, with no tricks or poses. And there's something immortal about it. And this is what I try to express. My photographic world is nature and its elements - the feminine fused together with the masculine, the androgynous.”
De Martino has built up an enviable portfolio of fashion shoots, and her work has been seen, among other publications, in the UK-based 'Labb', in 'Segue' magazine (no 8, 2010), and in 'Envie Fashion', a Japanese online art and photography platform.