It is another exciting year for the celebrated New Orleans-based photographer Josephine Sacabo. Moon Over Time was shown at Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston from February to March 2023 and featured a collection of 20 photogravures and silver gelatin prints spanning 30 years of Sacabo’s work.
Last month, Sacabo debuted Windows at A Gallery For Fine Photography in New Orleans. A new series of six hand-pulled photogravures printed on silk and hand-sewn, the series was influenced by a quote from poet Charles Baudelaire: “What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what goes on behind a window pane.” Sacabo explains: “These images were taken over the last 30 or so years but here they are, seen through the window pane of my memory.” Windows is on view at A Gallery for Fine Photography until September 2023. Sacabo will also release a completely new body of work, entitled Gravity and Grace: 2020-2023, at A Gallery For Fine Photography in October 2023.
Those Who Dance will be on view at Galeria PhotoGraphic in San Miguel in July 2023. Those Who Dance is Sacabo’s homage to Nahi Olin (aka Carmen Mondrago), the muse, artist, poet, social rebel, and great beauty of Mexico in the 1920s. Born into conservative Mexican aristocracy and ultimately shunned by her family, Olin mesmerized artists such as Dr. Atl, Diego Rivera, and Edward Weston with her extraordinary beauty, intelligence, and extravagant, uninhibited behavior. The photogravures in Those Who Dance celebrate Olin as a precocious free spirit who lived her life beholden to no one.
Sacabo’s upcoming luxury edition book is El Mundo Inalcanzable de Susana San Juan. Entirely handcrafted, the 12 x 16” foil stamped mohair hardcover includes 47 original photogravures and letterpress text. With images inspired by Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo and its tragic heroine, this book is Sacabo’s homage to Mexico, to Juan Rulfo, and to Susana San Juans everywhere who will not be possessed. El Mundo Inalcanzable de Susana San Juan will be a limited edition of seven and is forthcoming later this year from Luna Press.
Joséphine Sacabo lives and works mostly in New Orleans where she has been strongly influenced by the unique ambience of the city. She is a native of Laredo, Texas, and was educated at Bard College, New York. Previous to coming to New Orleans, she lived and worked extensively in France and England. Her earlier work was in the photo-journalisitic tradition, influenced by Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She now works in a very subjective, introspective style and divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. She uses poetry as the genesis of her work and lists poets as her most important influences, among them Rilke, Baudelaire, Pedro Salinas, Vicente Huidobro, Juan Rulfo, Mallarmé, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
Her work is in many major collections including the Museum OfModern Art, The Chicago Art Institute, The Smithsonian among others.
