Lauren E. Simonutti, 1968, USA, passed away last week due to complications from her illness. On March 28th, 2006 she started hearing voices and was diagnosed with "rapid cycling, mixed state bipolar with schizoaffective disorder". She felt she was going mad and spent her last years almost in isolation. She turned the camera on herself and the space she was living in. She has left us with an impressive, honest and strong body of work. With her photographs she gave a voice to those that suffer in isolation.
"Over (five) years I have spent alone amidst these 8 rooms, 7 mirrors, 6 clocks, 2 minds and 199 panes of glass. And this is what I saw here. This is what I learned. I figure it could go one of two ways - I will either capture my ascension from madness to as much a level of sanity for which one of my composition could hope, or I will leave a document of it all, in the case that I should lose." - Lauren E. Simonutti
The following images come from the series
The Devil's Alphabet and
8 Rooms, 7 Mirrors, 6 Clocks, 2 Minds & 199 Panes of Glass.
Website:
www.edelmangallery.com &
www.lauren-rabbit.blogspot.com
10 comments:
great artist.so sad for her loss.r.i.p. Lauren.
so glad to see watch this video...
she will be eternal
she was brilliant. her work amazing. her life complicated. but we are all privilege. as she wanted, her body of work speaks for her and is left for us to enjoy.
hope she is in peace. and silent.
Her work is endlessly creative, amazing talent and what a brave soul. Really brave.
Thank you so much for posting her work, I wasn't aware of it before and it is really relevant to my MA thesis... really resonates with me.
I knew Lauren for twenty years, and I so wish she could read the posthumous appreciation of her life and work. She lived with humor, in circumstances that she readily admitted were more like a nightmare than a joke.
Such a great artist, I really admire her so much having such illness still she has the power to give us photos that will be cherished in memory of her.
I got to know Lauren through Flickr and we kept in touch a lot by e-mail.
As time goes I hope people will discover what an amazing body of work she produced through so much adversity.
The world has lost a huge talent
Jim Downie
Art Director Scotland
I just discovered this great artist on deviantart.com. She is beyond compare; she was the very finest photographer I've seen in many years, and perhaps will prove to be the finest of this century. I was about to contact her and let her know how valuable the creativity was to my life. I surfed her name...she's gone.gone. (I lost a sister to the same illness.)
How wonderful that she left such a body of work for the world to experience!
Grieving artist,
A. Zeitz
Oh my goodness, I never knew she had gone. I bought her Devil's Alphabet handmade book from her on deviantsrr years ago. Her work is incredible. This is a terrible, tragic loss of a great talent. I am truly sorry to hear this, but so glad that I have a small piece of her in the book she so brilliantly made. Rest well Lauren x
F. McGrath
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