On the Sixth Day
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Nazraeli Press
English
Hardcover
80 pages
305 x 325 mm
2005
ISBN 9781590050705
Alessandra Sanguinetti’s vivid photographs depicting the coexistence of people and animals might at first sight seem brutal, images to be viewed quickly and erased from the memory. But that would be not only impossible but also a great loss, for here is an arrestingly honest portrayal of the relationship between man and beast as the one raises the other for the ultimate sacrifice. These are not animals endowed with human qualities; but they are someone’s livelihood, their means of survival. Sanguinetti took these pictures in a province of Buenos Aires. Here, by roadsides, in fields and in woods, she observed the rituals and traditions of the local farmers whose lives interweave with a host of animals – rabbits, horses, pigs, geese, lambs, cows, chickens – caught in the cycle that is life and death. The work in On the Sixth Day goes beyond straight documentary practice and evokes an intimacy that, confounding our sensibilities, it is a privilege to share.
(source: https://www.setantabooks.com/products/on-the-sixth-day)
About the Artist
Alessandra Sanguinetti was born in New York in 1968, lived in Argentina from 1970 to 2003 and is currently based in New York. An ICP graduate, she began a series of works in 1999 about the relationship between two nine-year-old cousins, Belinda and Guille, who live on a farm outside of Buenos Aries. Sanguinetti photographed them for ten years, charting their evolution from girls to young women. The girls collaborated with Sanguinetti on the series, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams, to construct images that evoke the fantasies and fears that accompany the physical and psychological transition from childhood to adulthood. The photographs use costumes and props, as well as references to art and literature, to explore the diffuse boundary between fantasy and reality. As the girls age, the photographs become more meditative as they start exploring their adult lives.
Sanguinetti is a member of Magnum Photos, and her photographs are held in museums including the Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
(source: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/alessandra-sanguinetti?all/all/all/all/0)
About the Publishers
Founded in 1990, Nazraeli Press has published over 600 titles on the fine and applied arts. The press is known for its unorthodox use of common materials – such as papers, wood, plastic, metals – and for introducing elements of handwork into otherwise mass-produced objects. The press’s books have themselves been the subject of exhibitions and books about books.
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(source: https://www.nazraeli.com/about)
