I'd like to talk to you about the project I'm working on, search with you as I write for the right words to describe what I'm trying to accomplish and how I'm trying to accomplish it.
I am always fascinated by the connections we have in life, the opportunities, the sharing and the timeless moments. I think these words are the essence of what moves me in this world, so it's the full concept of beauty with which I look at and experience the world.
Working on the redesign of my website, I had the opportunity to re-evaluate all the work I've done in the past, and the essential opportunity was to re-evaluate why I often do or look at certain subjects or details of the outside world. Evaluating what actually wasn't working and what led me to detach completely. Some time ago, before I understood myself as I do now, but not too many years ago, I asked a question to an Editor and Photographer, whose Master's degree I was attending, how I could connect with people and at the same time photograph them, tell those wonderful stories without being a burden to the naturalness of the scene. She never gave me an answer or a solution, and I think she did well in a way. Today, 7 years later, I have found solutions, answers, and connection between the past and the present, and assessed the actual power of having had certain experiences, and I am extremely happy to share it here hand in hand.
There has been a wall within me dividing me between these realities, these feelings and passion that I feel for the human world, for being human. A connection I find in both of my parents, who have always loved relating to others, who raised me in an open mindedness and full of correlations with others. I understand the whole universe of why I am so eager to give and to connect with others, and I understand what I also receive from all this, and the answer is always found in the solutions of problems, problems that for years have been simple questions without negative or positive meanings, problems that should only produce answers, solutions and alternatives to how you perceive yourself and the outside world.
You will say okey, what the fuck are you talking about now? Didn't you want to talk about a project? Well this is the project itself. But I like to talk figuratively about what I'm doing because I find it exciting, not brilliant, but smart, I do not want to attribute labels so without first proceeding to take what others may think.
So the project HUMANS, was born from a series of ideas, primarily from the connection with people.
My questions came from:
How do we connect with each other?
How do we get to know a person?
How do we assess whether that person or another is related to us?
How do we select people?
What causes our connection with others?
How does it affect our lives?
and many others related to that one...
In my life I have learned that connections with people are always there, there are no people I have met who were not compatible with me. In one way or another they were.
From these questions asked to myself, consciously and unconsciously, during my life, some consciousnesses and ways to relate to tools and skills have moved.
In the initial period of photography, I took a lot of pictures of people, especially in the studio, after several years, I could no longer bear the idea of photographing those people, the problem was not the people, and now I understand, but the modus operandi, the situation and the setting of the sessions. They were cold, although I managed to create stimulating situations and interesting connections with them, something was always missing. That something now resurfaces and shows up, a real connection based on time was missing. My theater studies initially thought they were useless, but actually starting from those basics like Time, Space and Action, they have been going through and through inside my mind during these last 3 years.
HUMANS, basically wants to ensure that the connections that I'm going to create with people, persist over time and grow, evolve, the plan is simple but very complex in its incubation.
Everything starts from the connection with people that I choose randomly, based on the feeling, I meet with them and chat with them, without going to touch the point of the project, I look for a connection plan first and then at some point I talk to them about what I'm talking about here.
Frankly, and always with respect for all points of view, today I find myself reflecting on the uselessness of portraits in photography, there are so many portraits, so many faces that are all the same to me. I can't see their soul, I can't touch them, I can't let myself be moved by them, they are just digital files wandering in human archives.
HUMANS is composed in this way, the essence of it is the meeting with these people, in practice I follow them, without a real common thread, I spend time together, I record part of the conversations, in audio, I shoot them in video, I take pictures, I exchange messages in chat and email. I collect all these media and I combine them, I edit them and I start to compose the map of connections.
Imagine or look at this image below:
Now imagine with me this map that starts from a photo, you can click on the photo and enter into its folder, in its storage and find fragments, you will find photos, texts, chats, emails exchanged, objects, audio recordings and videos, videos that start as if you were watching a TV series starting from episode 9 without ever knowing what happened before, and from what was born what.
Imagine that every person, has his own story, which contains other people's stories that are repeated in an infinite hyper connection of choices and solutions. This is what I have in my mind, and that I have already started, a map without territories, because the territories must be explored, and these territories are traced by the existence of a person, we can not do anything but discover it, we do not know what she does, what specialty she has, we are there and we follow her we take her as she is, for her real beauty, for her real authenticity.
I'm going to build the website soon, and I'm going to start bringing the map to life.
This is HUMANS, and I hope I have sparked your interest in connecting you in this endless process of solutions and questions that connect us all in this world, without differences that divide us, in a time where more than dividing us, we should consider the union and strength behind a constant and natural process of growth.
If you like this project and you want to participate please get in touch with me.