On Friday May 6th, artist Daniela Edburg held a portrait photo shoot session at the gallery.
This project is an extension of her small portrait series, in which she captured people in a way that resembles classical European portrait paintings. Daniela knits all the items she uses for her photographs – the objects like peaches, oysters, leeches, and ossobuco (cross-cut veal).
The artist started setting up the studio as soon as she arrived in Rome from Mexico City. An emergency occurred during setup – the major lighting equipment died due to the unexpected voltage problem! Everyone freaked out for a bit but soon we managed to contact a Roman photographer who was willing to lend his equipment to Daniela right away. The worst situation always happens at the last minute!
After we somehow finished the setup successfully, clients came. Seven clients of the gallery participated in this project. Portraiture is a strong Italian tradition that still interests Italians – Clients came to the gallery not only to have portraits taken of themselves, but also of their children. They were willing to pay quite a bit of money for their portraits by this hip artist!
I was only able to attend the photo shoot for one morning due to my other priorities (such as preparing for the final exhibition!). However, it was a great chance to get to know the artist during the entire four hours–I had only just discovered her from the press releases I helped prepare in organizing for the show.
-Sunny Kim