transmute: Lauren E. Simonutti

admission

Who are you? Where are you from and where do you live now?

lauren e. simonutti, born in NJ, currently residing in Baltimore, MD

biding time

What is it that you do? What media do you use?

I am a traditionalist. I shoot large format, (4x5, 5x7, and 8x10). As to film I will shoot any black and white film; whatever is available, whatever is most affordable.

Confinement

What do you think sets your work apart?

That is not for me to say. I shoot from my own perspective, how it is interpreted is up to the viewer.

Confounded by Time

How long have you been showing your work for? Did you have a “big break?”

I first started showing my work in 1987. I sought shows fairly regularly up until about 2000 when I simply lost interest in that aspect of it. I stopped seeking shows and just worked. After a time I started posting my work on the web.

My break came in 2009 on two fronts. I was selected to be an international featured exhibitor for the Ballarat Biennale in Australia. They flew me out there, gave me an auditorium to give a lecture, and a gallery space and a very large audience in people who attended the festival. I am still actively involved in Australia, including lecturing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology whenever I can get down there. I aspire to go every year. On the home front and at the same time Catherine Edelman of Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago saw some of my work online, it was a link to an online interview I did with an organization called LensCulture based in Paris. She contacted me and asked if I would like representation. She had actually refused my work in 2006 when I submitted it to her gallery, which was just about the best thing that could have happened, in the three years that followed my work improved tremendously. By the time she found me, I was ready, the work was ready. I could not have hoped for better.

Contemplating Daybreak

What are some things that have inspired you?

try to look at everything. I am inspired by what I read- Paul Auster, Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick; I am tremendously influenced by Surrealism, DaDa, Bauhaus, individuals such as Bellmer, Remedios Varo, Goya, Vesalius, Bacon, Odd Nerdrum. I spend a great deal of time looking at paintings and as well as primitive and pan-Pacific ancient art.

Insomnia

What have you been working on recently?

I have been working continuously over the past several years shooting exclusively in my home which due to circumstance I seldom leave. Isolation records well on film. My current project, begun with the new year is called 'No such thing as silence' which is a reflection of my bipolar with schizoaffective disorder, one side affect of which is that I hear voices and have since March 28, 2006. I am aware of the fact that they are not real, but that does not mean I do not still hear them. Since that day there has never been a day of silence for me.

Mobile

Do you listen to music while you create your work? If so, would you give some examples?

No. I only listen to music when I am printing or souping film, never when shooting.

Pincushion

Do you do work in any other media? Other projects not necessarily related to your main body of work?

I am a bookbinder as well. I make books as objects in their own right as well as vessels to contain various series of photographs.

Self Portrait

What advice do you have for artists looking to show their work?

I am hesitant to offer advice. What works for one does not necessarily work for others. My decision to withdraw my photographs from public exhibition yielded in the strongest work I have ever done, but that was an extreme and not for everyone. I do caution people to carefully vet their choices; many calls for submission are simply vehicles to raise revenue. I do not advise people to pay to show their work.