Interview Elinor Carrucci, a photographer of Art and Commerce with Katrin Thomas
Elinor: Where are you from Katrin?
Katrin: I am German originally. But I used to live in N.Y for 11 years, I consider myself half New Yorker.
E: Why did you leave?
K: I just went to Europe, I was curious and needed a brake and its been 3 years.
E: Now you live in London town?
K: Before I was in Berlin then Paris, and now I am in London : it's been a very interesting experience. But who knows if I will go back or not.
K: Your photographs and work has been shown internationally. When did you first start your diary of a dancer and why?
E: I started taking pictures a year or two before I began doing diary of a dancer. I was dancing in a restaurant in Downtown New York at that time which did not work out. It was really hard for me. I got used to photographing my family and worked really hard to develop this way of thinking and taking pictures. I left the restaurant and started working performing to the different communities around New York. It was really inspiring for me to dance in family events with other emigrants in ethnic centers full of Israelis or Arabs or Chinese in Chinatown or in the Buchary restaurant. My search was internal and emotional but also really technical, finding the right lens can sometimes open the way you see things. Then I found the panoramic format.
K: Did you try to capture the different vibes of the people? Was that part of your theme or part of the way you were thinking?
E: It was it was a personal diary and I needed to describe what was happening around me. I tried to capture whatever I saw. I was limited because I was a dancer as well, with every photograph I took there were 2000 photographs I didn't take ,very frustrating. While I was dancing a lot of things where happening in front of me that I missed.
K: Did you literally have your camera on you while you were dancing?
E: At first I didn't take pictures while I was dancing. I took the camera with me and I took before and after shots. I was so frustrated, I wanted to capture all the moments I tried to leave the camera around and asked people if they could take the pictures when I gave them a sign but this was too out of control . My agent almost stopped working with me because it was such a complicated process. Eventually I had to convince my husband who is also a photographer to help me technically and it was his camera I ended up using. I had to beg him he's not too crazy about belly dancing. I was really worried at first and felt I had to control everything like telling him where to stand and when to take a picture to make it mine. There is a lot of his influence in those pictures.
K: Is there one intimate story you would like to share that happened to you while in the making of this diary?
E: When I started taking pictures I wrote only a little bit. I hope my thoughts will explain my images. I remember this one wedding that was Israeli I'll never forget because I came with my agent and Eran (my husband). The bride was not talking to the groom's family and you can only imagine that this created a lot of bad energy to say the least. Sometimes I feel like this is my obligation to try and bring another energy to a special event. The fact that they were Israelis helped me because we shared the same culture and language. I started the performance dancing with the sad bride. Later I included the rest of the family. I don't know if things were resolved at that point but afterwards they started to talk and laugh together. The performance lasted almost an hour and in the end she was so happy. I think it really helped melt the ice, it was a wonderful feeling.
K: Is your artwork and photography also a body performance?
E: Yes in a way one could say that. There are different formats because my work is like from CLASER or CRISIS. I feel like belly dancing is a very intimate performance.
K: You started to take pictures for the first time when you were 15 and your first subject was your mother?
E: I started taking pictures of my mother and I felt like it was endless I just wanted to take more and more pictures of her. I did not feel like I was repeating myself there was so much to explore. In a way I felt I was comforting and giving myself answers by freezing certain moments. I didn't always understand my mother even though we were close. I didn't see this as making art it was just something that helped me I also started to photograph my father and brother etc…When I went to art school I stopped photographing them because I felt that this was an amateur kind of thing. My teachers saw that I looked for any possible excuse to photograph my family and they reassured me on this subject.
K: Are you still evolving as a photographer?
E: Of course now I am working with new elements like natures and close ups etc..
E: Staged or spontaneous?
K: Some of the images are almost snapshots. I just pick up the camera, and take a picture of something happening around me and others are very staged, for example the ones when I am in the photograph. The snapshots can lie or tell the truth and the staged shots can be empty and sometimes a disaster. At moments I feel I stage my mother or my husband and children and they express something to the camera that is very personal. I haven't figured out yet what are the rules to take a picture that will capture something honest or authentic from your life. It's really a mystery to me.
K: Any photo shot that has marked you?
E: I photographed Agnes Martin for W magazine and this was a wonderful experience! She was very old by then 91 or 92 the way she looked at me and her words I will never forget.
K: Can you tell us about "Body marks", how did this project start?
E: I moved to New York in 95 by myself with a box of prints. I left my family in Israel and I came here and I had nothing to photograph. So in my desperation I started to focus on the body. I bought a macro lens and just started to explore my husband's body and my body as if it was a country in itself. I paid attention to all the little details. The marks and aging and the way the body constantly changes, there was a lot to explore. This work was very personal and intimate.
K: You say that the close up becomes like a universe for you.
E: In a way yes, and in a way I was surprised, how very specific and personal it is, but people could relate to it because it was out of context. It wasn't about my mother or any one else, it's just a piece of skin with a mark. So it really relates to all of us in a more universal way.
K: What does beauty means to you?
E: Its very complicated, I am aware that there is the beauty that we all get to used to seeing, there are certain things I have to do as a woman. And I just had a big argument with my agent about grey hair I really did not want to dye my hair, the definition of beauty is beyond me. There are some days that I just want to be as beautiful and skinny as the models and some days I get up in the morning and I see beauty in a more complicated and mature way. My mother always told me that your appearance counts very much in life. It is constant fight within me. What is beauty I don't have the answer.
K: Do people compare your art with other well known artists?
E: Yes a lot of comparison to Nan Goldin! I take it as a compliment, I love her work !
K: Tell us about what you are working on at the moment.
E: I photographed my kids my pregnancy, no big change - it is more in the lines of my work" CLOSER". At first I couldn't even take pictures because I was so overwhelmed with taking care of the twins. I just took pictures with my cell phone just couldn't pick up the camera.
K: Did your husband take photographs of you during your pregnancy?
E: Yes some but not a lot photography is not his profession he works in another domain. He still does his own artwork but mostly street photography.
K: Any chances of you publishing the cell photos of the twins?
E: Maybe who knows I am a photographer after all.