Posts

Showing posts from 2019

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHED

Image
Drying - Ronciglione 2019 In the democratization of the photographed, the meditative process, which does not discern between good and bad thoughts but simply watches them rise and disappear, is imitated.  In this practice, we focus exclusively on the thinking process, regardless of its qualities.  Similarly, by recording images of more or less interesting subjects, the image acquisition process is witnessed, without any discretion.  Here then that by democratically accepting all the photographable, you are no longer bound to the subject and the message of the image.  In this way, we can completely abandon ourselves to our role of "world observers" and "instant recorders", as if we were simple instruments of divine dance, not very dissimilar from the camera we use.

AN EXPERIENCE-PERFORMANCE

Image
Partecipation - Imola (2019) My idea of ​​street-photography is that of an ever-new experience-performance. Each session is a wonderful event devoted to creative practice. If at the basis of this intent there are qualities such as truth, sense of communion, and the desire to link one's own vision to that of the reader of the images, then this performance is the message itself, the staging, the core of the meaning of my photography.

TO FEEL A PHOTO

Image
Green sensation - Comacchio (2019) In the famous picture called "The Steerage" by Alfred Stieglitz, the one taken in 1907 on the cruise ship SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, we find, reading the words of the same author, a situation of "moment received", so different from the Bressonian rhetoric of the "decisive moment". Stieglitz has this vision while he stands on the deck of the ship that is taking him back to Europe, so he runs to take the camera that is in his cabin, fearing that in the meantime the key elements of that image (the man with the straw hat and the woman with the child) can move and ruin the balance of the scene. Instead, on his return, everything is exactly as he left it, as if the photograph had waited for him. In this story, I see a lot of mindful-photography. There is another episode in Stieglitz's life which, in my opinion, hides a spiritual component, namely his commitment to the Clouds series (The Equivalents). According to him, in the ges

THE STRENGTH OF A DETAIL

Image
Detail of fountain - Ronciglione (2019) In the details that I come across at times, looking around with a fixed focal length telephoto lens, I am often lucky enough to hear the whisper of the Divinity that permeates everything. This is how the game of forms and contrasts is colored by new mystical interpretations. Everything is the work of the mind, of course, but letting the Manifestation show its daily theater, with sunsets, reflections, and rainbows, is already a valid reason to open your eyes in the morning and throw yourself with open arms to meet life. This is what my photography is about: by transforming the practice into a liturgical ritual, I leave traces of my observation. I don't care much about the meaning of every single image. Perhaps the ritual makes sense, but only if spontaneous and full of devotion. The main fountain in the garden of Villa Lina, in Ronciglione, is a sculptural work full of symbolism. Photographs never it grace, perhaps because of its strange shape

A DEMOCRATIC SEEING

Image
Ronciglione (2019) In Egglestone I recognize my ideas on visual potentiality. His obsession for the ordinary, his instinct for framing techniques, those saturated and rebellious colors, everything in his pictures seems to want to shout at the miracle of creation. If for a moment the witness and the manifested enter into symbiosis, revealing the dualistic deception, any representation that derives from it can be transformed into art. He was a complicated man and, like all great artists, exposed to the dangers of the ego, but I think he managed to find a way to understand the Creation through its impartial observation. He himself used to call it a "democratic seeing", free and without prejudice.

SUMMER FOREVER

Image
Summer again - Pescara 2019 Summer is the time when we take the most pictures. The abundance of chances and light inspires us to tell stories with our camera, in a ritual that somewhat reminds us of an animal hibernating. These images will keep us company on the gray winter days that await us, reminding us of the heat of the sun, the taste of the sea, and the feeling of sand under our feet. Photography crystallizes a scene that becomes a memory, and that memory arouses sensations that are only imagined, but like the real ones, they trigger emotions. Looking back on this particular image, I can recall all the magic of that peaceful wandering in search of stories, that slow pacing between the lives of men so that I could freeze the traces of their passage. In approaching this man leaning on his bicycle, for example, I had the distinct sensation of joining a dance in which everything seemed already defined. The choreography created by Manifestation itself wanted me to get closer to him wi

TIMELESSNESS

Image
Hidden but in the sunlight - Cologne (2019) Timelessness is what we achieve once we reject the concept of linearity of time. "Becoming" is thought while "Being" is the only thing we can cling to. In Being we find the potential of all possible transformations, past and future. One can only love what is, in the present form, in all its past or future representations. Memory helps us to understand reality beyond Becoming. But memory can also be very unreliable, because it is subject to the conditioning of emotions. In fact, we like to remember only what we want to remember and we always remember it in the way we prefer. If we could read the photographs with the awareness of timelessness, perhaps these could help us better understand the deception of Becoming. Facing what has been, we have two possibilities: to create a narrative that supports our emotional impetus, or to see what it has been for what it is, without judging it. It is never truly lost. It never really pa

SOPHISTICATED PLEASURES

Image
Strip of land - Comacchio (2019) Each phase of the photographic process holds a different and always renewed pleasure. When I am out doing street photography, landscaping, or whatever, I totally dedicate myself to recording the multiple aspects of Manifestation, diving into the mission with my mind and heart, without any prejudice. The pleasure is right there, in observing the world without rules, without brakes, with the utmost respect for every living and wonderful thing. In the subsequent processing phase, I do everything very instinctively. Also in this case I try not to be influenced by states of tension or who knows what expectations. The chromatic choice is something that happens almost automatically and only very rarely do I go back to my initial decisions. Finally, there is the selection and presentation phase, which can happen through a simple post like this one here. The pleasure lies in returning for the third time to read an image, to rediscover the sensation that prompted

MANNEQUINS: SOME READINGS

Image
Mannequin # 04731 - Perugia Taking pictures of dummies to discover their semantic power, their metaphorical meaning. Us and Them. What are the differences? Certainly, they let themselves be photographed. They are not shy. They do not react to the camera's hypnotic force. They are exceptional, impassive models of an almost alien nobility. Is it them who resemble us, or is it us who wish to look like them? Dreaming of artificial intelligences and cyborgs, in a future that is now increasingly less sci-fi and more available, mannequins remind us of these glorious in-animated creatures, which means "without a soul". Perfect, modeled, programmed creatures. Again, who looks like who? And then, here is the hand that dresses them, that positions them, that shows them. In its preparation, we can grasp the meaning of its existence infused by the creator. It is a full-fledged replicant, mirror of our induced needs, fetish of the Narcissus God that contemporary society unknowingly ado

UNSTABLE STATES OF PRESENCE

Image
A metal staircase - Ancona (2019) Usually, our vital energy is exhausted with the practice of indiscriminate and conscious observation. Physical and mental fatigue consumes the state of presence and thus we lose our visual potentiality. It is more than normal, in a street-photography session, to alternate periods of great visual potential with moments of indifference. When the vital energy is strong, Manifestation, and with it, the potential of the photographable, emerges effortlessly in all its surprising liveliness. Recognizing these changes in presence is something to meditate on.

HOLES IN THE CITY

Image
Pause - Antwerp 2019 Remnants of worlds that disappear to make way for new opportunities.  This is the testimony of a small urban change in the city of Antwerp, even if the change has not yet taken place.  I want to dwell on the void that precedes this change of structure.  What was there until yesterday within the walls of those two buildings?  How many people lived or passed by there?  How many will go through it, for completely different reasons?  Now that space is suspended, waiting to be filled.  This void bordered by concrete is talking about time, a pause, a moment of stasis between human affairs.  Now that everything is digitally mapped and updated for market needs, dealing with certain aspects of the territory is surely superfluous.  The holes between walls, on the other hand, do not interest anyone.  Everybody's waiting for the new attraction, the removal of the barriers, the return to normal.  New houses, new shops, a new comings and goings, which will be the same as bef

CONCEPTUAL, NON CONCEPTUAL

Image
Utrecht (2018) I do not repudiate conceptuality, on the contrary ... I find it fascinating. It's nice to get lost sometimes in the conceptual world. But conceptuality is theater, it is pantomime, it is mental entertainment mistaken for truth, and I think it's important never to forget that. The truth is always beyond words and concepts. For this reason, I remain firmly anchored to a non-conceptual creative gesture. I am looking for images that are not rhetorical. They only need to accompany my observations, which are also conceptual, but which are used as a fine-tuning in order to return to a harmonious state.