Elinor Carucci

Elinor Carucci
Born1971 (age 52–53)[1]
Jerusalem, Israel
NationalityIsrael, United States
EducationJerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Known forPhotography
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, ICP Infinity Award
Websitewww.elinorcarucci.com

Elinor Carucci (born 1971) is an Israeli-American photographer and educator, living in New York City, noted for her intimate porayals of her family's lives.[2][3][4] She has published five monographs; Closer (2002), Diary of a Dancer (2005), Mother (2013, Midlife (2019) and The Collars of RBG (2023). She teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Carucci's work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum and Brooklyn Museum in New York, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and Harwood Museum of Art in New Mexico.

Early life and education

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Carucci was born in Jerusalem.[4] She graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in photography and moved to New York City.[5]

Teaching career

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She currently teaches in the graduate program of photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.[6]

Photography

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Carucci told an interviewer that she tries to find universal meaning in things that are personal to her. She admires the work of Nan Goldin and Sally Mann, who embody what she calls two opposite extremes in her own work: Some of her photographs are spontaneous snapshots, like Goldin's while other images are carefully staged, more like Mann's.[7]

Closer

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Carucci's first monograph, Closer, contains her earlier work focusing on immediate family and her closest relationships.[8][9]

Diary of a Dancer

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Her second monograph, Diary of a Dancer (2005), documents Carucci's experience as a professional Middle-Eastern belly dancer entertaining at events like weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs in the five boroughs of New York City. Her husband, Eran, helped her to capture photographs of herself dancing. The images in this series depict Carucci preparing for jobs and applying makeup in dismal looking bathrooms and on subway rides, snapshots of her dancing and images of the people she was entertaining.

Mother

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Carucci's third monograph, Mother (2013), "documents ten years of New York City-based child rearing."[4] Beginning during the pregnancy of her twins and ending when they turn eight years old, she explores the complex realities of motherhood in images that show her joys and the pains, the beautiful and the ugly, and the love and dysfunctions. Mother also shed light on the sensual and erotic connections between mother and child in photographs reflecting the range of Carucci's experience, from bliss to the less attractive raw moments.[10][11][12]

Crisis

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Crisis (2001–2003) narrates a tumultuous time in her marriage. Taking place at a time when her and her husband were working through her infidelity and mind-body induced physical pain and his marijuana usage, these photographs look straight into the darkness of post-arguments, as well as at their tender moments. Carucci has described how photographing this process brought them closer together, as they ultimately demonstrated to each other in the taking of these photographs that their love for one another is held above all else. Photographing was a way of reconnecting.

A Time Lightbox article from 2013 summarizes the work as chronicling

"her tumultuous relationship with her husband and parents through incidents of infidelity (hers) too much dope (her husband’s) and her parents fractious relationship and eventual divorce. The mood was gentle, though, with plenty of high notes; the everyday ebb and flow of relationships were lovingly and lavishly documented, while the larger narratives played out in the background."[10]

Midlife

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Midlife (2011–2019) chronicles the years of middle of life, a time that is overlooked by our culture and society, especially in women's life. It explores themes of women's bodies and health, intergenerational relationship, love and marriage over decades, children getting older, and brings attention to the beauty and challenges of this period of time in women's life.[13][14][15]

Publications

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  • Closer. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2002. ISBN 9780811834940.
  • Diary of a Dancer. SteidlMack, 2005. ISBN 978-3865211552.
  • Mother. Prestel, 2013. ISBN 978-3791348155.
  • Midlife. Monacelli, 2019. ISBN 978-1-58093-529-6. With a foreword by Kristen Roupenian.

Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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Group exhibitions

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  • 2010–2011: Pictures by Women: a History of Modern Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, May 2010 – April 2011[24]
  • 2011: Insight, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, August–September 2011. With Alexandra Cool, Jacques Sonck and Elke Andreas Boon.[25]

Awards

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Collections

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Carucci's work is held in the following permanent collections:

References

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  1. ^ "Photographer Elinor Carucci's best shot". The Guardian. 2015-09-30. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  2. ^ "Women in photography: Elinor Carucci". Wipnyc.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-27. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  3. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (11 January 2010). "Is Elinor Carucci right to turn the camera on her children?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  4. ^ a b c Lagnado, Caroline. "Expat Israeli artist shoots gritty side of NY motherhood". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  5. ^ "Elinor Carucci App". Elinor Carucci. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  6. ^ "Elinor Carucci - SVA". School of Visual Arts. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  7. ^ "A Studio Visit with Elinor Carucci". bhphotovideo.com.
  8. ^ "Elinor Carucci: Closer". The Telegraph. 7 January 2010. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  9. ^ Brooks, Libby (22 June 2002). "Move closer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  10. ^ a b Bright, Susan. "The Most Intimate Dance: Elinor Carucci's Photos of Motherhood". Time. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  11. ^ Appleford, Steve (7 November 2013). "A year-end spread of bold, inventive photography books - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  12. ^ "Elinor Carucci: the mother of all photographers". The Telegraph. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  13. ^ Mallonee, Laura. "An Artist Takes an Unflinching Look at Her Own Hysterectomy". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  14. ^ Roupenian, Kristen (4 September 2019). "A Photographer's Intimate Self-Portrait of Womanhood in Middle Age". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  15. ^ "Book Review: Midlife". Musée Magazine. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  16. ^ https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/sites/default/files/1971-2017_TPGExhList.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  17. ^ "Elinor Carucci". www.herzliyamuseum.co.il. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  18. ^ "Le Bleu du Ciel". Archived from the original on 2017-05-06. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  19. ^ "Elinor Carucci: the mother of all photographers". Telegraph. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  20. ^ "Elinor Carucci's 'Mother' Series Captures The Stunning Highs And Lows Of Being A New Parent (NSFW)". Huffingtonpost.com. 2013-10-15. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  21. ^ Meyers, William (4 April 2014). "Inside a Mother's Life and a City's Glamour". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  22. ^ "Getting Closer, Becoming Mother: About Intimacy and Family. (1993-2012) Elinor Carucci". Cortona On The Move. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  23. ^ "Elinor Carucci - Sheltering in Place". UCM Gallery of Art & Design. 30 September 2020. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
  24. ^ a b "Elinor Carucci - MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  25. ^ "Insight - Photo Museum Antwerp - Actuphoto". actuphoto.com. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
  26. ^ Risch, Conor (18 March 2000). "PDN's 30 2000". Photo District News. Retrieved 2023-09-03.
  27. ^ "Past Recipients". International Center of Photography. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  28. ^ "Elinor Carucci". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  29. ^ "Meet a NYFA Artist: Elinor Carucci". New York Foundation for the Arts. 14 October 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  30. ^ "Recent Photographs by Elinor Carucci at James Hyman Gallery". artdaily.org. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  31. ^ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  32. ^ "My Mother's Lips | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston". www.mfah.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  33. ^ "Collections :: The Harwood Museum of Art :: Taos :: University of New Mexico". harwoodmuseum.org. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  34. ^ "Archive 2011 - Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerpen". Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerpen. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
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