Bio
Gouzelle Ishmatova is a Russian-born French photographic artist based in Los Angeles, California.
Her practice is rooted in concepts of identity, and explores gender roles in society. Her work lives in the space between universal and lived experience, and is motivated by understanding and reflecting female eye and voice in her practice.
After moving to Western Europe, Gouzelle began using her camera as a tool to understand the places she left behind; in the years since, her visual storytelling expanded into areas of narrative series. Blending documentary work with staged imagery, Ishmatova also takes inspiration from her family’s own visual archive, as well as research.
Committed to expanding her photographic education while cultivating her career in business, Gouzelle completed a series of photography short courses at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, in 2013.
From 2018 - 2020, she also worked with JH Engstrom and Margot Wallard, developing her practice at the Atelier Smedsby. Gouzelle was selected as a Rencontres d'Arles Workshop Laureate during the Summer of 2017 for her multimedia series Beauty Will Save the World, which was also shortlisted for the LensCulture Art Photography Award in 2019.
In 2022 Kehrer Verlag published Gouzelle’s fist book “My Country is Female”, she also participated in her first Museum exhibition in Provence as an invited artist during summer exhibition “Laisser une trace” in Museum Yves Brayer.
In 2023 Gouzelle worked with Feodora Kaplan and Mikhail Dormozhilov from DocDocDoc School, St. Petersburg.
Exhibitions
Distance Between, Paris, France, May 2021 (Solo)
Laisser une trace, Musee Yves Brayer, Les Baux de Provence, March - November 2022 (Collective)
Athens Open Art, Art Number 2023, February 2022 (Collective)
My Country is Female, Paris, France, November 2022 (solo)
Books
“My Country is Female”, Kehrer Verlag, July 2022