Guido Argentini, is an Italian artist, born in Florence and currently resides in Los Angeles, USA, has always delved into the female universe attracted by all its nuances. Capturing an idea of a woman divinity, through his black and white photography set in landscapes with soft silhouettes that almost illustrate the female forms, or in the sculptural images of series ‘Argentum’ to stronger situations, set in luxurious hotel rooms as in cheap motels, where Caravaggio-like lights and bright colours become the scenery of stories in which eroticism and beauty dominate, where the woman is mistress of herself and her sensuality.

‘I always felt that photography was too close to reality. Painting and sculpting allow you to be more abstract when working with the human figure’. Project Argentum

Studying Medicine for three years at the university of Florence, at the age of 23 he decided to turn his passion for photography into a profession and commenced his career shooting fashion and beauty. Living in Los Angeles, USA since 1990, Argentini’s works have been published by some of the leading international magazines.

PUBLICATIONS

2003     First book, SILVEREYE. An exquisite series of studio and landscape nudes which reflects the artist’s great personal passion for sculpture and dance.

2005     Second book, PRIVATE ROOMS. A glimpse into a unique ‘feminine universe’. This book celebrates a decade of the artist’s work through a different personal journey, one where eroticism and beauty are clearly inseparable. Captured in the intimacy of closed rooms, ancient villas, modern apartments, hotels, from the most elegant five-star locations enriched with luxurious velvets and four-posted beds to the most squalid insignificant hourly-rate motels furnished with cheap plastic chairs and worn-out wallpaper. A universe where all these rooms become the theatres of the artist’s self-directed voyeuristic fantasies.   

2007     Third Book REFLECTIONS. A vast collection of photographs of women reflecting themselves in mirrors: unconscious research about the study of the woman upon herself, through her gaze, she falls in love, and gets lost amidst her own reflection.

2010     Fourth Book SHADES OF A WOMAN. Explores the different levels and nuances of the female nature, capturing new visions of the world and thus, life and women. A project that commences a starting point, an accomplished by the artist which has so far been ‘for the eyes of a woman’.
‘Women have always been the source of inspiration for all my art forms and, I suppose, this has been the case for all men who have tried to create something in the past. This book contains just a few photos that have been published in my previous books; most are brand new shots, where I attempted to put in pictures a narrative. Consider them simply as single images, like frames taken from a movie. The story, the music, words, s and silences are all left to the imagination of those who look at my photographs’.   

2013     Fifth Book ARGENTUM. The final collection of Argentini’s silver photographs.
Evoking the luminous polished planes of the work of Brancusi and the verve of Degas’ ballet sketches, these photographs endow the human body with both the solidity of sculpture and the vivid energy of dance. Using geometrical props, Argentini created a contrast between the human body and the archetypal forms of geometry: triangles, circles and squares. The final result of many years of work, Argentum presents a collection of more than 100 photographs of women and men: dancers, gymnasts and aerialists. Not a mere book but also a movie, a documentary that reveals the concepts that are behind the making of this book: Argentini’s esthetic of the human form and the skills of the athletes that posed for these photographs.