Alessandra Sanguinetti
About Alessandra Sanguinetti
Alessandra Sanguinetti (US, 1968) currently resides in California. She grew up in Argentina, where she lived from 1970 until 2003. Her interest in photography began at the age of 9 when she discovered her mother's collection of photo books, including works by Michael Lasy and Dorothea Lange, to name a few. She holds a degree in anthropology from the University of Buenos Aires and studied photography at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York.
Sanguinetti has received notable grants as the Hasselblad Foundation in 2001 and the Guggenheim Foundation in 2008. She has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 2007.
Photographic approach of Alessandra Sanguinetti
Her vision is characterized by a close connection to what she has witnessed. Without artifice, without unnecessary ornamentation, she presents a documentary narrative often rooted in everyday life, revealing a certain intimacy with the people she has photographed, with whom she has shared moments of life.
Alessandra Sanguinetti’s work is well-known for exploring themes of memory, place, and psychological transitions in youth. In 1999, she began her iconic series that examines the relationship between two cousins, Belinda and Guille, who live in an agricultural area west of Buenos Aires.
Her photographs are easily recognizable due to the use of the medium format 6x6 and, consequently, the square format, which allows for a specific approach to framing. She adeptly plays with symmetry, planes, and distance to create balanced and harmonious compositions that serve her purpose.
Exhibitions
Her work has been widely exhibited internationally and included in private and public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
As a member of Magnum agency, Alessandra is part of the exhibition Close Enough, which brings together 12 women photographers from the agency. The exhibition was displayed at ICP in New York and at Hangar in Brussels.
Art Book Publications by Alessandra Sanguinetti
Alessandra Sanguinetti’s projects extend beyond exhibitions, manifesting in the form of published books. Her work on the Argentine cousins, titled "The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of Their Dreams," resulted in a book published in 2010, with a second edition featuring new images released in 2020. This project is one of Alessandra Sanguinetti's most emblematic, having captured their lives for almost 20 years.
Additionally, with her series "On the Sixth Day," she delves into the relationship between humans and domestic animals in the Argentine countryside, capturing their perspective at their eye level.
