Eleonora Agostini was born in 1991 in a small town close to Venice, Italy.
She studied photography at the Istituto Europeo of Design in Milan and at the School of Visual Arts in New York as an exchange student. Within her work, two main themes persist: firstly, the ideas of temporariness and transition – so far explored through the banality and the anonymity of hotel and motel rooms, ordinary yet indecipherable exteriors; and portraits in places that she likes to call temporary houses.
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L. Hi Eleonora, thanks for the chat. What does interest you the most in photography?
E. When I started to take photographs it was more about photographing what was surrounding me; the world was something to experience through a medium I felt really close to. Then through the years I started to use photography as a way to reflect on some invisible concerns, using images and ideas I had in my mind, often decontextualizing the images to create a new narrative.
I think it’s the unfinished in the everyday life that appeals me. There is something fascinating about unfinished things and how the role of photography can transform something unresolved into an object, making it complete.
L. What does ‘Something is Missing’ series mean to you? If you could go back to 10-year time, would you change anything
E. ‘Something is Missing’ is a study of human experiences in transitional places and anonymous locations that don’t belong to anyone and in which people don’t recognize themselves because they don’t have any familiar points of reference. In most of the pictures the beds are unmade, the sheets open to narrate stories about lost moments gone, echoing the traits of my characters as they sit on their beds or stand on their doorsteps staring blankly into space. Most of the hotel rooms have recently been left by the guests; the rooms sit in a place between past and future, with traces of a moment gone, soon to be erased, just like those who have spent the night there.
The choice of using a place geographically and temporarily anonymous like motel and hotel bedrooms is born from the necessity of including my personal story within my work, the story of my family and the environment I grew up in. This choice has now grown beyond my family’s relationship with hotels into a reflection about a transitional, precarious, and momentary space.
When I look back at my old projects after a few years I am always in a weird position with myself and with what I have made. Maybe if I would do it now I would change something but just because I have a slightly different vision. But I’m happy with ‘Something is Missing’ as it is.
L. What does your future hold, photography speaking?
Who knows, I will keep you posted!
