Every now and again I will share my thoughts about a particular photographer who either inspires me, intrigues me or influences my work. Or maybe even all three.
Luisa Lambri is a photographer whose work I first came across when researching for a project on self-portraiture. Whilst I enjoy taking photographs of people, being in front of the camera myself is a different matter entirely. What interests me about Lambri is how she creates self-portraits without being in the frame herself. She constructs these self-portraits of absence by using a space or place to represent herself in an image. By focussing on tiny changes in perspective and light she demonstrates the passing of time and her own physical movements within a defined space.
Please click on the links below to view some of Lambri’s work.
Primarily using interior architecture as her inspiration, it is noticeable that Lambri focuses on detail rather than the entire building. She chooses geometric shapes and structures such as windows, doors and frames where she can use changes in light to subtly show her presence within a space, usually looking from the inside to the outside. The first thing that strikes you is the abstraction and the minimalism of her work, the sense of space within her images and I find her series Untitled (House in a Plum Grove) particularly compelling in this regard. Looking at other series such as Untitled (Darwin D. Martin House) you notice the slight differences between the individual images, reflecting Lambri’s movement within the space in which she is photographing and creating her own absent self-portrait through her relationship with that space.
Whilst I was initially struck by the contrast of light and shadow in Lambri’s Untitled (Darwin D. Martin House), I am also drawn to her quieter, more ethereal work such as her Untitled (Strathmore Apartments) series. Lambri’s subject is a window with louvered blinds, with the degree of openness of the blinds varying slightly in each image. This gives the window its own life, with the blind acting as a veil to the outside world and through which the viewer gets tantalising glimpses of what is beyond. I find it very restful, very serene and peaceful yet at the same time also asking questions: What’s behind the veil? Do we want to find out? Should we go there? Can we go there?
What is it that I like so much about Lambri’s images? Aesthetically I am attracted by their abstract minimalism and the way in which Lambri’s use of light produces photographs that are ethereal and almost poetic. Yet it is the conceptuality of her images that stands out for me. In Lambri’s work I’ve found something different from other photographers that I’ve come across. There is a quality that I can’t quite describe but which resonates with me, touches my soul.