Conversation portraits

One of the most interesting facets of Christine Ljubanovic's remarkable artistic career is her series of black-and-white Conversation Portraits, so named because the compositions of twenty-four or thirty-six individual portraits of artists; writers; dancers; curators; film, theater, and museum directors; and other friends form narratives of her encounters with them. Christine Ljubanovic: Conversation Portraits. Photo-Suites, 1974-2014 brings together sixty of the portraits taken over the past forty years. Among those pictured are Yoko Ono; Thomas Hirschhorn; painter Arnulf Rainer; photographer Gisèle Freund; Alfred Pacquement, director of the Centre Pompidou; and poet and novelist Raoul Schrott, who has also contributed a poem to the book. In each case, Ljubanovic and the subject of the portrait chose the meeting place together so that it conveys something of the personality of the subject and provides a framework for the photographic conversation. In addition to composed studio portraits, Ljubanovic's photographs therefore show her subjects against the backdrop of theaters, museums, street scenes, city parks, and Parisian cafes. Essays by Robert Fleck and Julia Garimorth complete the book. With the Conversation Portraits series, Ljubanovic has produced a fascinating picture of today's artistic and cultural scene, and the book will make a contribution to our understanding of this body of work.