Sandro Giordani, an Italian photographer, began to work on the project 'In Extremis (bodies with no regret)' in 2013.
The series, which is composed of many similarly shot, bright and humorous images, are about 'a world that is falling down'.
On the subject, the artist says on his website;
"Each shot tells about worn-out characters who, in a sudden black-out of mind and body, crash with no attempt to save themselves. They are unable to, because of the fatigue of the everyday representation of living, oppressed by appearance instead of simply existing. We live in a distorted world of plastic surgery, which perpetuates stereotyped images that feed a preset marketing model."
And so these at first humorous images turn into something not that funny at all. In fact, they become relatable upon this knowledge of context. I too find simply living exhausting. I may not be doing anything extravagant with my life but I still get very overwhelmed by life even in the simplest of ways.
While these images are all shot in a very similar way, the scenarios are all very different, yet the key message is the same with them all. The artist, on his website says:
"I hide the face of my characters in order for their BODY to speak for them. This fall is the point of no return. There’s a saying “you must hit rock bottom to start over”. The FALL of my characters is their HITTING ROCK BOTTOM, as they’ve reached their LIMIT beyond which their FALSE SELF cannot go."
So each image may have a different location, props and model, yet the thing they're experiencing is all the same. The characters seems to have very different personalities shown by the use of props, colours, costume etc, however them being shot in the same pose gives them something that they all relate to; they're all at rock bottom, at the limit of false personas society has forced upon them. Simply living like that has caused them to collapse.
"Each of them saves an object, they hold it in their hand and it symbolizes this falsification."
This can be seen in all of the images above. The first, a camera. This could possibly represent how we change for a photo, we go stiff, we pose, we pretend to be happy. we smile when we dont want to. In combination with the balloons and the cake we're introduced to the thought that it's based around parties, particular children's parties.
While the artist hasn't said much about these images in particular, to me, this party-eque image titles 'TANTI AUGURI A ME' is about how we pretend to be happy during parties, especially ones we don't want. combines with the camera, it's as if the girl wanted to capture these falsely happy memories, to look back on and believe they were truly happy.
In the middle image, she seems to be saving what looks like multicoloured condoms. The artist says it signifies the falsification, and so it appears to me that the condoms represent false intimacy. This may be in a way that she's not straight in a world that still oppresses the LGBTQ+ community, or perhaps she had to sleep her way into her high position as shown by the glamour in the image (wads of money, a chauffeur, an EU flag, etc) or even just the fact she has had to sleep with people she didn't want to in the past, or used as an object in society. All of which are common problems.
The third image has a much larger thing gripped in her hand; a person. I'm not entirely sure what falsification this could represent; perhaps the woman or persona of a woman she's clinging on to? The very idea of the woman, fitting in with others?
In her other hand she clings to popcorn; perhaps to represent greed and gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins according to the bible.
"Everything that is visible in the picture represents their pretence while the smashed BODY expresses the TRUTH, which has to, in fact, crash to be told! I never use dummies in my shots; I use professional actors who are able to interpret what isn’t visible with their bodies, because I want the invisible to be visible."
This would suggest that he believes in order for our truths to be told, we must reach rock bottom, as he puts it. We only speak up when we're at the lowest parts of our lives and simply cannot live by continuing to be false.
These images as a whole do make you want to laugh; Giordano says
"Since I was a child I’ve always loved films by Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy because they made me laugh. In their films we often see terrible things happen to the characters, serious accidents… THE FALL… The instinctive reaction is bewilderment and awkwardness towards the unlucky fate of the character but then that same awkwardness breaks into a liberating laugh. This is the effect I wish to recreate through my photographs: tell tragedy through irony. A broken down humanity that I look to with fondness and attachment and from which, I myself, don’t feel excluded from. It is this feeling of empathy that allows me not to judge but to share the stories I tell, in the hopes that, if I manage to get a laugh out of a spectator"
I think this is a good way to look at the work. You can appreciate both the humorous side of them while acknowledging the 'tragedy'
I'm particularly fond of this quote because
This image at first related to my own work because of the chaos visually in the image, which is what i want to portray. Little accidents. But upon researching the images, i'm actually a lot more intrigued and I like them even more. The message and meaning behind them is something I relate to and can get behind.
Now I'm unsure as to whether keep my project lighthearted or have more of a serious undertone beneath the humorous layer.
The series, which is composed of many similarly shot, bright and humorous images, are about 'a world that is falling down'.
On the subject, the artist says on his website;
"Each shot tells about worn-out characters who, in a sudden black-out of mind and body, crash with no attempt to save themselves. They are unable to, because of the fatigue of the everyday representation of living, oppressed by appearance instead of simply existing. We live in a distorted world of plastic surgery, which perpetuates stereotyped images that feed a preset marketing model."
And so these at first humorous images turn into something not that funny at all. In fact, they become relatable upon this knowledge of context. I too find simply living exhausting. I may not be doing anything extravagant with my life but I still get very overwhelmed by life even in the simplest of ways.
While these images are all shot in a very similar way, the scenarios are all very different, yet the key message is the same with them all. The artist, on his website says:
"I hide the face of my characters in order for their BODY to speak for them. This fall is the point of no return. There’s a saying “you must hit rock bottom to start over”. The FALL of my characters is their HITTING ROCK BOTTOM, as they’ve reached their LIMIT beyond which their FALSE SELF cannot go."
So each image may have a different location, props and model, yet the thing they're experiencing is all the same. The characters seems to have very different personalities shown by the use of props, colours, costume etc, however them being shot in the same pose gives them something that they all relate to; they're all at rock bottom, at the limit of false personas society has forced upon them. Simply living like that has caused them to collapse.
"Each of them saves an object, they hold it in their hand and it symbolizes this falsification."
This can be seen in all of the images above. The first, a camera. This could possibly represent how we change for a photo, we go stiff, we pose, we pretend to be happy. we smile when we dont want to. In combination with the balloons and the cake we're introduced to the thought that it's based around parties, particular children's parties.
While the artist hasn't said much about these images in particular, to me, this party-eque image titles 'TANTI AUGURI A ME' is about how we pretend to be happy during parties, especially ones we don't want. combines with the camera, it's as if the girl wanted to capture these falsely happy memories, to look back on and believe they were truly happy.
In the middle image, she seems to be saving what looks like multicoloured condoms. The artist says it signifies the falsification, and so it appears to me that the condoms represent false intimacy. This may be in a way that she's not straight in a world that still oppresses the LGBTQ+ community, or perhaps she had to sleep her way into her high position as shown by the glamour in the image (wads of money, a chauffeur, an EU flag, etc) or even just the fact she has had to sleep with people she didn't want to in the past, or used as an object in society. All of which are common problems.
The third image has a much larger thing gripped in her hand; a person. I'm not entirely sure what falsification this could represent; perhaps the woman or persona of a woman she's clinging on to? The very idea of the woman, fitting in with others?In her other hand she clings to popcorn; perhaps to represent greed and gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins according to the bible.
"Everything that is visible in the picture represents their pretence while the smashed BODY expresses the TRUTH, which has to, in fact, crash to be told! I never use dummies in my shots; I use professional actors who are able to interpret what isn’t visible with their bodies, because I want the invisible to be visible."
This would suggest that he believes in order for our truths to be told, we must reach rock bottom, as he puts it. We only speak up when we're at the lowest parts of our lives and simply cannot live by continuing to be false.
These images as a whole do make you want to laugh; Giordano says
"Since I was a child I’ve always loved films by Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy because they made me laugh. In their films we often see terrible things happen to the characters, serious accidents… THE FALL… The instinctive reaction is bewilderment and awkwardness towards the unlucky fate of the character but then that same awkwardness breaks into a liberating laugh. This is the effect I wish to recreate through my photographs: tell tragedy through irony. A broken down humanity that I look to with fondness and attachment and from which, I myself, don’t feel excluded from. It is this feeling of empathy that allows me not to judge but to share the stories I tell, in the hopes that, if I manage to get a laugh out of a spectator"
I think this is a good way to look at the work. You can appreciate both the humorous side of them while acknowledging the 'tragedy'
I'm particularly fond of this quote because
This image at first related to my own work because of the chaos visually in the image, which is what i want to portray. Little accidents. But upon researching the images, i'm actually a lot more intrigued and I like them even more. The message and meaning behind them is something I relate to and can get behind.
Now I'm unsure as to whether keep my project lighthearted or have more of a serious undertone beneath the humorous layer.
Comments
Post a Comment