What type of printing do you prefer?
In recent installations, I’ve often chosen to print on 3mm dbond panels. I really like the minimalist end result.
What comes first, the idea or the fascination with the material? In other words, does the artistic/photographic project come first, or is it inspired by techniques, particular processes, or images that strike you?
The idea comes first, but by the time I take the shot, or at the end of the project, I already know what type of paper I want to use. I know that for a certain type of photography I would use a thick, full-bodied paper and for another a smooth paper. However, I often like to discuss different ideas with my trusted printer (Newlab). I really like the idea of experimenting. The medium is so important that it also determines the success of a photographic project.
Do you have any Masters you look up to and feel close to?
So many masters, it depends. For me, Giacomelli remains one of the most important, one of those I look to for further learning, but there’s also Ansel Adams with his black-and-white photographs, Dorothea Lange for reportage, Abbot for research, Ghirri for poetry, but I also look at contemporaries. The photographic language has changed so much, there are some American photographers who are very good! I do it sparingly, though; I’m always afraid of reproducing something, of course everything has been done! I look and forget, I do it often!
The image as such – writes Agamben, taking up one of the fundamental principles of “The Society of the Spectacle” – is nothing other than “a zone of indecipherability between the true and the false”.
In your works I found this limbo, a constant disorientation that further confuses the viewer’s gaze in light of the nature of these landscapes, which in reality are not landscapes at all.
These desolate lands, these dense horizons of pure white stone, are nothing more than reworkings of possible worlds, rediscovered or, better said, reinvented by examining small portions of much larger lunar contexts: the Cervia Salt Pans.
In his next exhibition “The White Dust” he will exhibit this very series of works that we had the pleasure of printing at our Newlab laboratories.
Would you like to tell us about this photographic project of yours?
Exactly, “White Dust” was born precisely from this type of thought, how could I represent the Salt Pans in a way that made the viewer wonder what they were? We are now used to looking at what surrounds us with a broad gaze, we no longer dwell on the details, we almost no longer look at what is so close to us… instead I did precisely this type of reflection, I got so close to the material that I deconstructed it, to give a wider breath to those details that made the representation become abstraction, a world in other worlds, and I got lost! Voluntarily of course! I found so much magic in what I saw that at the end of the project I liked the idea that it was so abstract!
Future projects?
Space in my research, I have a very material project but this time it’s all in BN, I’m still working on it but it will be the next one I’ll dedicate time and energy to.
The idea first or the fascination for the material?That is, did the artistic/photographic project come first or was it inspired by the techniques and particular processes that struck you?
Absolutely the idea.
I’m not that knowledgeable about the various techniques either at the time of shooting and even less at the time of printing.
As far as printers are concerned, my trust is total and I often ask them which solutions they consider most suitable for my idea.
Do you have any Masters you look up to, to whom you feel akin?
I don’t really have teachers but I love photographers and photographs who throughout history have been able to use a storytelling method that was ahead of their time. There were photographers, especially female photographers, who expressed themselves in the last century with a modernity that, seen today, leaves you speechless. Those are my examples and also the ones that most show me the way. A few months ago I visited the Lisette Model exhibition in Turin. There are photographic cuts and subjects unimaginable in her time. In that I see the genius.
his recent photographic project entitled “The Last Hour” was exhibited in the 2021 edition of Paratissima and has as its theme the school spaces left empty during the 2020 lockdown.
Classrooms, corridors, corners of rooms in which desks and light compose images of an abstract and melancholic geometry.
They are places where the human element is not present but resonates heavily in the background, as if it were a constant white noise.
White like absence, white like the doors in the paintings of the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi, who in the early twentieth century anticipated the laconic spaces of Edward Hopper.
“The Last Hour” expresses a short circuit of meaning in which absence becomes stronger and more felt than presence, a series of images which, like Rachel Whiteread’s sculptural casts, put the viewer before the exquisite importance of what is no longer, what perhaps we have never truly seen even if it was before our eyes.
Would you like to tell us about this latest photographic project of yours, the origins of its title, and your beautiful choice of installation at the Paratissima 2021 event?
First of all, thank you for the honorable mentions. The Last Hour was born from the desire to provide an opportunity for reflection on what the school system and, consequently, our society were experiencing. I’m always afraid our rhythms will lose their place in the moment of reflection.
The aim was to be able to do this without using easy stereotypes, and this has always been my battle.
The subjects and composition of the images are just a consequence.
And they respond more to my compositional instinct than to a study.
Future projects?
Observe what happens in the street below… life often passes through there.
Being able to tell it can be a good thing for those who are missing out.
Biography
Marcello Campora
Photographer/Architect
www.marcellocamporafotografie.it
Marcello Campora
Born in Savona, architect and photographer, lives and works in Savona.
Thanks to the idea of the architect Mario Clemente Rossi, in December 2016, he set up the exhibition entitled ‘Spiaggia libera’ at the Studiorossi+secco in Imperia.
In 2017 he exhibited the project ‘Empty Turin’ at the Monumental Complex of the Priamar Fortress in Savona.
In 2018, he was invited to document the backstage of Striscia la Notizia; the shots were then shared through the show’s social media channels.
From May to July 2019, at the Oratorio dei Disciplinati in Finalborgo, he exhibited two works in the exhibition ‘Doppio Sogno’ curated by Riccardo Zelatore: ‘Highway Saluzzo Revisited’ and ‘I Milanesi’.
In October 2019, the Albania-Romania 1-0 project was selected to be exhibited in the Ph.ocus section of the Paratissima Art Fair.
In April 2020, the video of the photographic fable “If the Sea Comes to Earth” was published by the Santa Maria della Scala Museum in Siena as part of the online project for children, “I’ll Give You an Idea.” The entire project was then exhibited in Celle Ligure at the Traumfabrik gallery in July 2020.
Also in 2020 in Savona, at the suggestion of the Savona Ceramics Museum, he exhibited the series of photographs entitled ‘Supermarket’.
Some of his photographs on the theme of the recent lockdown, from the series titled ‘Tomorrow,’ were selected in 2020 as part of several calls, including ‘Paesaggi inimmaginabili’ promoted by Biennolo and Arcity-lab, ‘#mostriamoci’ by Civita, and the online exhibition ‘HOME’ by Open Doors Gallery in London.
The project ‘L’ultima ora’, a reflection on the schools closed during the first lockdown, was selected and exhibited in the Ph.ocus section of Paratissima Torino 2020 and was recently chosen among the 5 winners of the same section and among the 15 at Paratissima 2020.
In 2021, one of his photographs was selected for the ‘E’ una vita che ti Ri-cerco’ call promoted by Paratissima in support of the Piedmont Foundation for Cancer Research Candiolo.
In early 2021, he created a limited-edition artist’s book, ‘Our Souls at Night,’ a reflection on the experience of museums closed during the recent lockdown.