Inner Constellations: Maïmouna Guerresi Photographs - Tapa dura

The mysticism of Sufism suffuses her work, which is also influenced by the corporeal experimentation of the Body Art movement. The feeling the photographs convey is simultaneously disconcerting and serene. They are portraits that capture not individual personalities but the conjunction of the individual with something greater.--Andrea Denhoed "The New York, September 18, 2015 " It's hard to believe that Italian photographer Ma mouna Guerresi doesn't use Photoshop for her dreamlike, spirituality-infused portraits -- many of her subjects levitate and have superhuman limbs. Guerresi was raised Catholic in Italy, but converted to Islam after a trip to Senegal in 1991. Over the next 15 years, she began taking photos rich with symbolism from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Rather than one religion in particular, it's Guerresi's reverence of the human body that unifies her portraits, which were published in her first book of photography just this week.--Stephanie Eckardt "New York Magazine, October 18, 2015 " The cumulative effect of Guerresi's photographs is a blurring of the boundaries between what the real and the fantastical. In her work we perceive a sense of being that extends beyond the limitations of the physical form, a place we visit when we dream and assume a new way of perceiving the Oneness of the world. Inner Constellations charts the path we all share, an internal landscape, a space that exists between the sacred and the profane, the passage between light and dark, between life and death. It is the mystery we carry within us every day we are on this earth.--Miss Rosen "Crave Online, October 29, 2015 " As you notice by the artist's pictures here, you can't help but feel a certain sense of calm with what your eyes bear witness to. One could easily think that what they're seeing is not altogether human but something much larger than that. At times, a lot of the subjects in the book, look as if they're floating, due to their supernatural powers. 'Maybe', one might ask, 'he or she in the picture is really a spiritual entity here to evoke change of perception, as Ma mouna has done by treating the human body as sacred dwelling place - a 'temple of the soul.'--Cause and Yvette, November 30, 2015

Inner Constellations is the first book by one of the world's leading female photographers. Original approach to fashion and faith make Inner Constellations one of the most significant collections to be published in 2015. Focus on contemporary Islamic culture in Africa provides new look at a little-known world. Provides a powerful look at the presentation of women in the Islamic faith. Sumptuous production includes four-page gatefold. Introduction by Andi Potamkin, co-owner of Kasher|Potamkin, a high-profile Chelsea (NY) art gallery. She's been referred to as the "Sufi Frida Kahlo." Maimouna Guerresi is a photographer, whose work sometimes incorporates sculpture, video, and installation art. Her unique style combines Afro-Asian themes and symbolism with the traditions of Western classical iconography. This unique melange incorporates cultural and religious influences, and fusion of different artistic languages. Her meticulously composed and highly impactful photographs include veiled figures that symbolise the body as a sacred building, as the "temple of the soul," a modernist style reminiscent of some traditional Madonnas of classical art. The costumes are made of fabrics that she has collected in travels in Africa or Asia. The book is composed of ten chapters, ranging from "Light Signs: Frontiers Between the Known and Unknown" to "The Giants: Dark Faces of the Great Spirit Guides" through photographs that are totally distinctive in terms of creating environments that are fantastic and ethereal and unlike the work of any other photographer working today.