Salvatore Attanasio

What type of printing do you prefer?

For me, printing on cotton paper is THE ultimate fine art print. No other paper gives blacks the depth they deserve. Not only that, a print on cotton paper has a velvety finish, a magical look.

Did the idea come first or the fascination with the material?

The material is certainly important but without an idea it remains empty.

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Do you have any Masters you look up to and feel close to?

No, I wouldn’t say so. Both as a painter and a photographer, I’ve studied the greats, but I’ve always searched within myself for an identity that had to be personal: in painting, a distinguishable trait, and in photography… In photography, it’s even more difficult. You have to stick to reality.

You can change the shades of colors, or even forgo color altogether, to represent light and shadow, but it’s not enough. It takes much more. I think, subconsciously, I’ve drawn a lot, everything, from what I’ve experienced, from what surrounds me.

In 1891, Sybell Corbet wanted to take a photograph of the library at Combermere Abbey, in England, whose owner, Lord Combermere, had passed away a few days earlier.

Miss Corbet, given the poor lighting in the room, decided to opt for a long-exposure photograph lasting about an hour.

He certainly didn’t expect to immortalize a ghost, a blurred figure sitting in Lord Combermere’s leather chair!

“Spirit photography” enjoyed growing success from the mid-1800s onwards, in Europe, a land of renewed interest in the occult, and in America, probably following the tragedies of the Civil War.

President Abraham Lincoln’s widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, asked to be portrayed in the company of her husband’s spirit by the self-styled photographer William Mumier, a former goldsmith who was later unmasked and sued for defrauding vulnerable, grieving people.

Sybell Corbet and William Mumier, each with different intentions (in fact, the photograph of Miss Corbet was born by chance,   as the butler had unknowingly sat in the armchair during the long shooting phase) have created evocative photographs, capable of making reality and imagination coexist, of suspending time between the visible and the invisible.

I know you’ve been working on a project called “Castles, Ghosts, Legends” for years. Would you like to tell us about it?

First of all! I don’t believe in ghosts. It may seem strange, but it’s true.

The project was born in a haphazard yet intriguing way, so much so that developing it was not at all difficult. How did it begin? Quick to explain. At the invitation of a dear friend, Giuseppe, a librarian and a keen scholar of the history of Padernello Castle, I visited the manor in July 2019. From a short volume written by Gian Mario Andrico, I learned the legend surrounding the story of Biancamaria Martinengo. I didn’t see any ghosts, much less photograph them, but since then I’ve been going from castle to castle in search of stories and legends. From Padernello to Federici Castle in Gorzone, to Darfo Boario Terme, then Soncino and Pandino.

I’m currently exhibiting works created in the rooms of the Casa del Podestà in Lonato del Garda, based on a “History of the Otisi,” a historical-literary invention conceived in the late 19th century by Count Teodoro Lechi and physician Carlo Tagliaferri. Soon, in July, Bornato Castle will host my works. To summarize the Project’s inspirational concept, I’d say I bring to life within castles those who, in legend or reality, lived there.

The rest is just technique.

Future projects?

In November, an exhibition at the MACOF where I will present an unusual research without a narrative, centered on characters…

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