Gina Maragoudaki is a greek photographer based in Athens. She studied piano and advanced theory of music. Metronome series is the result of her first seven years of photographing. She has constructed a bright black world where darkness spreads around her subject matter which intentionally doesn’t give the viewer much information about its origin.
In the Metronome series one notices a delicate color pallet and texture that is familiar to paintings from the Renaissance period. What do you think about the the relationship between painting and photography, which exists since the birth of the medium?
There is a whole philosophy on this particular relationship, and despite the extreme and fanatical views I sometimes read, I prefer to see things very simply. These are two visual arts and it is very reasonable to interact.
In particular, in Metronome, this palette was not consciously chosen as a reference to the Renaissance, but it is the colors that appeal to my own perspective.
Why did you title the project Metronome?
Metronome is not exactly a project. There is no specific idea on its base. It’s just the images of my first 7 years of my working on photography. I was looking for a title so open and general to fit in. Music, on the other hand, was the first art I have studied, and therefore I had a daily relationship with the metronome. Taken for granted that time as a concept, is intimately linked with photography, I didn’t think much about it. It was an easy way to combine, even superficially, the two arts.
What are the range of physical dimensions of the photographs of this project?
I took those photos with my first cameras that offered resolution of 10MP, so the sizes are no bigger than 60×40 cm and 50×70 cm.
After presenting this project in your solo show in Athens Photo Festival 2018, is it fnalized? Do you intend to publish a photo-book or do you think it matches more the nature of the exhibition walls?
As I said before, Metronome is not exactly a project. It’s the way I photograph for the time being, so I think it is not over yet. I have the impression that if I do not put boundary lines on myself, it will never end. And yes, surely, at some point of my life I would like Metronome to become a book.
What music do you listen to, while editing your series?
I listen to music that relaxes me and helps me stay focus. From Chet Baker to Bach, depending on the mood.
What are you working on now?
My new project ‘Salon’ is among other things an attempt to escape from the form of the Μetronome. It is a kind of exercise and an attempt to renounce the palette and lighting conditions of the Μetronome.
