Guido Argentini
Private Rooms

from March 4, 2006 – April 15, 2006
(Opening hours Tues. – Sat. 11.00 – 18.00)

Gallery Camera Work will be presenting selected works by the photographer Guido Argentini in its rooms in the Kantstrasse between March 4, 2006 and April 15, 2006.

Guido Argentini, born in 1966 in Florence, started taking photos at the age of 23. He had studied medicine for 3 years before he discovered his passion for photography. Guido Argentini has been living and working in Los Angeles since 1990. His work has appeared in some of the most famous magazines in the world, for example Vogue, GQ and Playboy. Following his very successful Silvereye series, Camera Work is now presenting for the very first time selected photos from his current book project "Private Rooms", which is also published by teNeues Verlag like "Silvereye".

These "private rooms" show women in very intimate moments in glamorous surroundings: Argentini challenges the viewer to transcend borders and tread "forbidden ground".
"To display, paint or photograph the naked body of a woman is often seen as something indecent in today’s society. […] Someone once asked Picasso where he drew the line between sexuality and art. He replied: “they are one single thing, they are one and the same. Art can only be erotic”. (Guido Argentini in the preface to "Private Rooms").
The Italian constructs a forbidden erotic universe without drifting into the realm of pornography. The erotic pictures are characterised by their melancholy charm, whereby Argentini rejects any type of formalism. The pictures live from spontaneous moments and are dominated by a deep trust between the model and artist.