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Yola Monakhov

Photography After Dante

January 14 to March 6

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  • Press Release
Images shown on the site are just a small sample of works available by the artists.

Photography After Dante

Bartender, 2009

Cows, 2009

Duccio with Goose, 2009

Ella, 2009

Olive Tree, 2009

Ilaria, 2009

Young Men, 2009

Ragazzi di Siena, 2009

Police, 2009

Girl with Plane, 2009

Paola, 2009

Man with Children, 2009

Seaside, 2009

Italo, 2009

Cards, 2009

Alfredo at Home, 2009

Cats, 2009

Piazza, 2009

Pantheon, 2009

Boar Hunt, 2009

Press Release

Yola Monakhov: Photography After Dante – Black and White Photographs
January 14th- March 6, 2010

Sasha Wolf Gallery is pleased to announce the second solo show of photographs by Yola Monakhov.

For this body of work, Monakhov used Dante’s Divine Comedy as a source and framework for creating photographs in contemporary Italy. Her approach intended to bring together a canonical text and contemporary life, using the poem to investigate conventions of the photographic medium.

The artist’s method involved establishing an active relationship with her Italian subjects, who had grown up with Dante as a cultural touchstone. She noted their reactions to the poem and linked these with her own reading and photographic vision. She discovered that when she explained her project to her subjects, they not only intuitively grasped her premise, they also reacted to and enacted it. One subject, Paola, implored the photographer: “Please do not put me in the Inferno,” as though this first stage of the pilgrim’s journey were a real place, rather than a poet’s construct.

Monakhov does not stage illustrations. Rather, she uses photography to start and record a very real conversation about Dante with the people who read him and for whom the poem is still very much alive. She uses a range of approaches, from formal portrait sessions to verité photography. Just as the text draws on numerous literary registers to evoke the atmosphere and context relevant for each occasion, Monakhov deploys a variety of photographic methods. She uses large format, medium format, and 35mm black-and-white film.

Monakhov received her MFA in 2007, and her MA in Italian Literature in 1998, both from Columbia University. In the intervening years, she worked as an editorial photographer primarily overseas and in crisis areas, increasingly devoting her time to the pursuit of her own work. She is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker magazine and teaches photography at Smith College.

Artists

  • Barbara Bosworth
  • Dannielle Bowman
  • Caleb Charland
  • Doug DuBois
  • Rahim Fortune
  • Kris Graves
  • Adam Katseff
  • Peter Kayafas
  • Chuck Kelton
  • Paul McDonough
  • Kristine Potter
  • Christopher Rodriguez
  • Sasha Rudensky
  • Alessandra Sanguinetti
  • Bryan Schutmaat

Contact

212.925.0025
info@sashawolf.com
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