From March 2nd to April 14th Noema Gallery in Rome host Stefano Cipriani’s -exhibition “camminando per la Città” .
The exhibition roots about “portraits of cities” all over the world, the aim of the photographer is to capture the soul of the city that he explores: by emphasizing its uniqueness, which becomes even more evident when the subject is taken apart from its context, and to stimulate considerations and questions.
Stefano Cipriani (born in 1951 in Rome) has always been interested in photography and started taking photos since the 1970s, while he was studying architecture. During the years his techniques changed following the modernization of the world starting from black and white photos to a more colorful way of representation.
Below the exclusive interview
Q: May you introduce yourself to our lectors ?
A: There’s not a lot to say… between the 70’s/80’s I started studying architecture that for several reasons I did not finish studying.
Although I had not finished my studies, the architectural background gave me a particular vision of what surrounds me, especially of the urban landscape, as a matter of fact I have always been fascinated by it.
I have always been on this line, I have rarely distanced my photos from the urban subject.
Q: Where does your passion for photography come from ?
A: I discovered it between the 70’s and the 80’s when I saw Ansel Adams’s exhibition in Florence, I was very impressed by those photos sized one and a half meters, they gave me the feeling that I was inside of them.
In fact, in my early works I tried to get that kind of result, but I never achieved it: the photographic medium and a lot of other technical things were different and I couldn’t apply it exactly as it should have been.
Another crucial moment was when a friend of mine took me to his dark room and I completely fell in love with it.
Q: Where does your aspiration comes from?
A: I have always loved traveling and I’m mostly inspired by the urban landscapes that surround me, as a matter of fact I always try to capture the soul of the different cities I get to visit.
A big inspiration of mine has been a sketch of Winsor McCoy an American illustrator born in the first half of the 900 , which, on the background represented the New York skyline and on the front line an Indian american on a canoe.
It represented his personal interpretation of futuristic cities, as a matter of fact he perfectly represented the contrast between the rural America and the modern one.The evolving nature of the city is what inspired many of my works: I always take pictures of construction sites, telephone wires, light poles…which give me the idea of mutation and openness to different realities
Q: Why are the cities you represent completely empty?
A: To me people are not a matter of interest, I’m more interested in the landscape itself which is immutable meanwhile people are something accidental.
During the years I began very good at shoot in the moment of the passage of people to capture the landscape without anyone
Q: What do the walls represent to you ?
A: I have started my research on walls many years ago, starting from Mexico City, as a matter of fact I was fascinated by a wall: the fact that I didn’t understand what was on the other side of the wall is what really attracted me.
I loved that I could represent through my picture the unknown and let the spectators imagine what was on the other side. I named this project “It’s a walls world” taking inspiration from a movie of the 60’s called “it’s a mad mad mad world”.
Q: Is there a message of sustainability your works ?
A: I believe that in my works there’s an unconscious message related to the idea of preservation of the landscape: for example when I had to do some researches over the street names to write under the images for the exhibition I found out that many of the palace I photographed were completely changed, and many others didn’t even exist anymore. When taking a picture I don’t think about the social message behind, however sustainability is a concept that is present in my everyday life.
Q: Can you give us three words to describe your works?
A: Harmony, curiosity and music.
The first one because I always search for the harmony construction of the scene , the second one because there is alway the reach of unusual and unpopular places and the third one because the music is another great passion of mine and I often listen to music while I take picture.
