About

Marina Guitchounts

The essence of an object is its form. I aim to free the form from the distractions of color, using black and white photographs to let the shape, light, and shadows dance on paper. I use photography and charcoal drawings as the primary media through which to communicate ideas and reveal the beauty in ordinary objects.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I was forced to learn to use symbolism and hidden messages to convey ideas that were antithetical to the government. Images, being a nonverbal medium, are a particularly powerful means to convey a message without spelling it out. The use of symbolism to communicate an idea is particularly important in times or places where freedom of expression is not guaranteed.

But a message doesn’t mean anything unless it’s received and understood. I hope that I can connect with others using the hidden messages in my photography. At the end of the day though, humans are exceptionally adept at finding patterns; watching others find new patterns is as rewarding as embedding the patterns into the images in the first place.