Gioconda & August
Gioconda & August is a photographic duo founded by Gioconda Rafanelli and August Kaciuruba in Florence in 2012. Now based in Milan, their work moves between fashion, portraiture, landscape and fine-art photography. With an affection for the peculiar and the beautiful, they find inspiration in ordinary scenes, unexpected encounters and the occasional absurdity of everyday life. Their photographs combine a painterly sensitivity to light with a gentle sense of humour and a fascination with the passage of time. Influenced by painting, cinema, architecture and the natural world, Gioconda & August approach photography as a way of observing rather than explaining. A solitary tree, a fleeting gesture or an otherwise unremarkable afternoon can become the beginning of a story. Their images often leave something unresolved, inviting the viewer to imagine what might exist beyond the frame. Their work has appeared in international editions of Vogue and publications by Rizzoli and Assouline, and has been exhibited at Palazzo Morando and BASE Milano. Alongside their editorial and commercial work, they pursue personal photographic projects exploring the relationship between people, places and memory, finding beauty in the familiar and a certain poetry in things that might otherwise go unnoticed.