PROJECT IDENTITY

A project about people that chose to live in London. I decided to take pictures about strangers that I met through Social Networks. This project is characterized by a process that is in part result of the post-internet era. The purpose of this work is not a pursuit of the aesthetic message of the art after internet, rather, it aims to resume and give importance to some issues of the post- internet era, such as the grotesque significance of the life inside the world of the social networks. Furthermore, I intend to portray this through a theme of darkness and could reflect so appropriately the feeling of a society that has long been dormant from an era marked by a state of “alienation” and now it seeks to destroy itself with discordant and misguided choices. This justifies my choice of a glum and rather melancholy mood, depicted in my photographs. Angus Fairhurst was largely influential in my area of research. I tried to show through my subjects (as Angus Fairhurst made through the figure of a gorilla) my most intimate and hidden emotions. My subjects are showing something that cannot be explained just with some words, they are showing my deepest essence, they are portraits of my soul. Rothko is another central figure in my research and for my artistic training. I admired deeply the elimination of the human figure in his paintings. I was fascinated by how close it was to achieve something in the history of art books was defined as sublime/the Stendhal syndrome. With this in mind, I looked for a maximum synthesis in my backgrounds, I tried to pass something similar to what I gazed in his paintings. It goes without saying that it seems contradictory to the fact that I put the subjects in the middle of my photos, but in my humble opinion, the background in my pictures has to give a sort of second shot to the viewer (a kind of reverb) and immobilize him in a state of “awe”. You could call morbid and bizarre my persistence in trying everything that can be defined as a search for aesthetic of ugliness in the history of Art. Citing some authors/artistic movements such as Ensor, Die Brüke, and Art Brut, and without going into the real reasons that led these authors to implement certain choices (which were undoubtedly of paramount importance the time and the place where they lived) I find that their subjects are very intriguing and fascinating and undoubtedly very close to what I earlier defined by the term “Sublime”. I appreciated a particular interest of some contemporary artists in this aspect, such as Nick Night or Bruce Gilden, both deviated from conventional aesthetic to art which opposes classic canons of beauty. Cutting Agreement is attributable to this series of factors, my choice to avoid to show the beautiful side of my subjects but rather to tell stories through their faces. From August Sander to Becher spouses I believe that the new objectivity has profoundly influenced and changed my perception of photography, indeed, my current research no longer points towards the creation of "beautiful" pictures but intends to create pictures that delve into deeper meanings, concealed in emotions and depicted in pictures. Coming from Italy was a pivotal factor in my choice of using social networking as part of my work. Social networking allowed me to overcome issues such as being shy to approach people personally, where instead I was able to communicate with them online. I decided to photograph people inside parks because, in my opinion, these green areas are the perfect contrast to the virtual environment where I met them. Furthermore, I chose to photograph only women's faces to refer my difficulty to relate myself with women. I find that they complement the figure of Munch's Mantis woman, where the women figure is dangerous and disturbing. I used this photographic device to showcase my difficulty with maintaining relationships. Besides, I left my subjects the freedom to choose how they appear (outfits and make-up) because I would not like to change their way of being and wished to keep their authenticity.