Laura Cuch

‘Sense Son’

'Sleepless' is made up of a series of fifteen portraits of people who, for one reason or another, sleep very little. This project reflects on the surprising fact that such an everyday action as sleep, tiredness and dreams, still remains a mystery. From a scientific point of view it is not known what exactly the benefits of sleeping are for the metabolism, and what the resulting consequences of lack of sleep are. From a cultural point of view, we pose the question of how we understand sleep and the idea of insomnia. The observer observes a culture or society linked to notions of time and its control, to night and day, to light and darkness, to privacy, security or vigilance, to the consciousness of oblivion, to the concept of health or the definition of illness.

This project stems from the artist's curiosity about how people live with lack of sleep. It is the first of a trilogy which questions human nature by way of dealing with themes relating to health and illness. One of its main challenges is to visually explore aspects of the human condition that are not visible. Laura Cuch, in each portrait, shows the fruit of the interaction in the creative process of the very people who appear.

Background

Barcelona, Spain, 1979

With a degree in Publicity and Public Relations from the University of Barcelona, Laura Cuch also studied a general course of photography at the Catalan Institute of Photographic Studies. During the academic year 2005 to 2006 she received a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to study an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths College (London University). Since then she has worked as a freelance photographer, involved in projects in the arenas of social reportage and artistic photography.

She has shown her work in various cities such as London, Barcelona, Murcia and Vic. Of special note is the project ‘Shades’ which was shown at the Catalan Institute of Photographic Studies in February 2007 and ‘Reserved spaces: collection B (photo inventory of urban landscape)' which was shown at the Sala d’Art Jove of the Catalonian Government in March of the same year, and with which she won the second prize of Urban Landscape 2 of the London Photographic Association. In 2008 she received a grant from the Associació Amics de la Fotografia de Torrollea de Montgrí for the production of 'Sleepless'.

Of importance in the professional arena, has been her collaboration with the project Celebrating Enterprise, aimed at helping disadvantaged communities in London, principally immigrants from Latin America and Bangladesh. Also noteworthy is her work organising and delivering photography workshops with immigrant children and those with learning difficulties or from disadvantaged social backgrounds.