DIGITAL COMPOSITING

is the art of assembling visual elements coming from different sources in order to create the illusion of reality. Its object of study is the same world that many generations of artists have already observed. The tools used are no longer just paint and canvas, but the study of light, color and how they all combine in reality cannot ignore all the previous artistic research.

Knowing photography and the principles behind it are fundamental requirements in order to create images capable of expanding their own boundaries even beyond a single picture. The precise use of light and color can tell as much as words.

My photographic style starts from these assumptions to create a personal dialogue between literary quotations and visual references, trying to highlight the various shades of reality.

In 2009, the Italian city of L’Aquila was destroyed by a massive earthquake. Though still a teenager, I was there.

Pictures here presented are part of the larger series of shots entitled L'Aquila My Way. The project aims to capture some of the main features of this city and its poetics. Using color, light and computer graphics I combined reality with fantasy, telling the story of some places in L’Aquila through the changes and the still visible signs of the earthquake.

As Proust said: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. For this reason, each shot in the series offers a different filter placed between the eye of the camera and the world represented. The balance formed belongs both to the author and to the observer, in a collaboration that generates a new meaning.

L'AQUILA, MISE EN ABYME

A girl plays on a swing attached to a scaffolding. Next to her we see one of the many reconstruction signs: "Please, keep this area clear at all times".

The shot took place in the inner city of L'Aquila, in the streets adjacent to Piazza del Duomo, a corner between present and past. The mise en abyme in the title is used more as a literary device than as a photographic technique, creating an oxymoron between the textual dimension of the sign and the suspended movement of the girl. This is an image that contains within itself a small copy of the world around it. There seems to be a dash aimed at spreading beyond the edges of the shot.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG

Forte Spagolo (Spanish Fortress). The reality seen by children turns into a world as vast as the imagination of their eyes. In improvised adventures just outside the front door, imagination follows rules without measures. Even at night there is someone who can paint the future with colors that reality does not know.

STAGE 4

Taken from a city rooftop during the end of the first lockdown in 2020.

The cranes that distinguish the peculiar skyline of L'Aquila are accompanied by some unusual visitors. Like the parrots in the skies of Rome, the fish in the deserted canals of Venice or the flamingos on Jep Gambardella's terrace, even in this shot the reality is not what it seems. The mechanical animals of the reconstruction meet the return of nature, unusual and alive but perhaps more alone, in a reality-shift scenario anxious for the future.

KOLOSSAL

With perhaps a few other exceptions throughout the rest of the world, the sign of the American video rental store chain continued to head towards L'Aquila.

Failed in 2013 when the city was still slowly taking back a dimension of normality, the company probably found some difficulties in tracing the store in L'Aquila, already closed for years due to the earthquake. Blockbuster thus remained in L'Aquila as an evanescent presence, capable of attracting ghosts from the surrounding buildings. The memory of his neon lights a postmodern sunset echoing the third act of an endless kolossal.

PARADISE FALLS

One of the most unusual buildings in the urban geography of L'Aquila, located in the neighbourhood of Pettino.

Suspended in mid-air and almost detached from the rest of the building, this structure seems to hide a long-delayed desire for adventure.

In the surrounding disinterest, his journey begins in the direction of the wind.

OUT THERE

Although more than 10 years have passed, many buildings in the inner city of L'Aquila continue to remain as they were right after the night of April 6, 2009.

These places seem to keep in their rubble the echo of a past life that is still waiting to see the future.

© 2024 Andrea Piersanti