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I have selected ten clinical cases from Oliver Sacks’ works : 1 - “The man who mistook his wife for a hat” 2 - “The lost mariner” 3 - “The disembodied lady” 4 - “Phantoms” 5 - “The President’s Speech” 6 - “The dog beneath the skin” 7 - “Homicide” 8 - “To see or not to see” 9 - “Migraine” 10 - “A walking Grove” At first I thought of creating an image for each story, but the deeper I went into these stories the more I began to understand that though they appeared different, the pathologies described had a lot in common so that though some images interpret single cases, others relate indifferently to several stories. The first problem I encountered was philological. Reading and re-reading the stories my imagination came up with endless images that gave form to the sentiments expressed. But creating such images would be much the same as the work of a painter who illustrates a story and would entail placing my imagination above the feelings I perceived. I believe that photography should draw its soul from that which already exists and that the only project that produces a photograph needs to be intellectual and emotional; any image that is planned or materially constructed is an installation not a photograph, it is not an idea but its publicity, not a feeling but at best the representation of one. Now, however, in an instant the means of a sentiment is reproduced, not the sentiment itself; memorable fragments are recorded, not the memory itself. Consequently I did not use the negative as the untouchable testimony of what the lens had recorded but I accepted the fact I was creating an image with superimpositions while trying to retain my emotional involvement for the time necessary to complete the image, making the technical adjustments needed to create a single negative with repeated expositions, changing lens, speed and shutter according to the suggestions of reality. I travelled with fragments of images on the negative and the inspiration of the story in my heart and mind, trying to remember what I had already acquired and ready to superimpose other parts of the image in case I found and felt them. If some photographs have come of this. They are such from a technical and conceptual point of view. Obviously, my concept of photography. Settembre 2002 |