Lives and works in Montreal.

Clara Gutsche is renowned for her photographic explorations at the frontier of the documentary approach, albeit a more subjective one. Her works reveal the potential of pictures to explore the interiority of being and of place, and to account for social and cultural realities. In both a realist and intimist manner, the series Parkscapes (1982–1984) posited the park as a space of attraction—a gathering place but also a place of solitude. The pictures teem with details of human, natural and architectural components that make up the urban grid and their relationship to a prefabricated landscape. In the corpus Inner Landscapes (1976–1980), meanwhile, she staged odd, symmetrical and delineated spaces—almost ready-made, often composed of variegated merchandise, which revealed the tangible expression of human intent. Via the subject, the showcase and its reflection, the artist also stages a new perception of the city.

Clara Gutsche’s work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions in North America and Europe. These have included VU, Centre de diffusion et de production de la photographie, Quebec City (2005), the Château d’Eau, Toulouse, France (2003), the Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium (2001), the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona (2000) and the Musée d’art de Joliette (1998). In the fall of 2007, Galerie Occurrence will show recent works by the artist along with those of David Miller. Clara Gutsche’s art is part of many public and private collections. She teaches photography at Concordia University, Montreal, and at Champlain College, Saint-Lambert.