INSIDE AFRICA (2007)

STATEMENT

Artwork statement In the pages of “Out of Africa” Karen Blixen wrote: “Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility. The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air”. This body of work comes from the curiosity of a man towards this unique world, as described in the literature, and is the outcome of my first travel in Africa, along two weeks of full immersion in the Kenyan wilderness, in August 2007. My wish was to give an iconographic sense to the impressions induced by a close contact with the primordial wilderness of the East Africa, the going back in time, when the man wasn’t yet on the Earth. I tried to give almost partial answers to the questions about what really Africa is for us and the body of work I have produced is for me like a notebook of a traveller. Sometimes I believe that Africa doesn’t really exists, but only is a myth that by miracle survives the time and the destroying human behaviours. I lived for a very short time inside Africa, suspended trough the prehistory of a heavenly wilderness and the uncertain future of the people, but it was enough to bring Africa inside me. Process statement It was a natural choise to work with black and white films (Rollei Retro 100, Kodak TMAX 400, Rollei Infrared) and square medium format (focal lengths from 38mm to 180mm). I used a 35mm camera (focal lengths 35mm and 50 mm) only for a little part of the work. I used pan and infrared films. I visualized some diptyches for wide views. Two square ore rectangular negatives are placed side by side, printed one after the other in a unique sheet of paper. All the prints are edged by a slight frame, obtained in darkroom. Limited editions printed on warmtone fiber based paper, in sheets sizes from 9 ½” x 12” until 20”x24”.

Publishing Date 2007 / 10 / 19