Week 6: Elinor Carucci

After looking at all of the different photographers I found myself drawn to Elinor Carucci's work. When first looking at Carucci's work it felt incredibly personally. All of her different series seemed very personal and as if you were really taking a look into someone's life. The photos are beautiful but the people in the photos do not always look visually stunning.

In Carucci's series Closer, one gets to see Carucci's life and her family's life. I selected the photos above because I find them both very different but still fitting within the theme of the project. The top photo is a picture of Carruci's mother and father. They are seen throughout Carucci's photos and seem like very important people in her life. Additionally, the family seems very comfortable being photographed. The photos seem natural and not staged. Maybe this is because Carucci has been doing this for a while but I feel like when photographing family it is very hard to not have the photos look like they were staged. I always feel like there is one family member who also does not feel comfortable being photographed. 

I choose the second photograph because I liked how it looked. Period blood is something every woman goes through and to depict it in a natural normal setting is refreshing. The blood even looks beautiful in contrast with the bathroom floor. I might be wrong but I feel like Carucci's series Closer tries to push the boundaries on how close someone can get. I feel this way because a lot of the photos are about Carucci's personal life with her partner (?) and photos of her family and parents together.

These two are other favorites from Closer. It feels as though Carucci is not even there taking photographs. Carucci has inspired me to try and make my work feel and look a lot more personal. I have always struggled with trying to obtain more personal feelings in my work. I feel like this always happens due to the subjects I photograph. They are mostly my friends and sometimes they don't always feel really comfortable being photographed. I feel like a lot of my photos looked staged. In some ways I do like that because I like my photos to be interesting. I always feel like my snapshot photos don't always come out as strongly. I would like to continue working on making my photos more natural. It really does make a difference when looking at photographs if they feel personal.

Additionally, it was interesting to view Carucci's professional work in addition to viewing her personal work. Carucci photographs for magazines such a People magazine. I find that interesting because her personal work is a lot more creative than what one would see on the cover of People Magazine. Her professional work photos do feel a little eery but I feel like that has to do with the information she is trying to cover. It is also nice to see how one can have personal and professional work.