I’ve always been obsessed with demarcation lines. That point of connection between completely different realities that meet at one point and then incoherently mix into one another.
As much as “buffer zones”, grayscale, and soft color transitions have their appeal, they rarely manage to make an impact the way a clear change does. A single line beyond which you perceive the world in a completely different way.
In fact, it’s no coincidence that the basic concept on which Symbols stands finds its roots in great black and white photographers’ art.
Cartier-Bresson, Erwitt, Riboud, Platon.
In short, the main point has been my incapability to manage to represent something so dynamic through a complex approach such as b/w portraits.
I would’ve loved to do that with all of my heart, but it would’ve not been the same. Hence, the choice to keep colors.
Symbols has then conceptually remained a game of contrasts, that develops starting from a focal point: the (theory of the) first meeting.
When two strangers meet, to what extent is possible to dive into each other’s conscience, in order to feel a bond that can be defined as such?
There could have been multiple answers to this question, maybe so many that the number would’ve been immeasurable. However, in front of a camera, time is key - everything happens in a matter of milliseconds. The pictures I’ve shot have a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second, and they were all shot towards one direction: the search for the Symbol.
As hard and complex as it was gonna be, I was determined to look for a Symbol that could’ve represented both me and the stranger in a specular, reversed, parallel, contiguous way. It didn’t matter how, what mattered was deconstructing the relationship and sum it up in an abstract form. All of this, to create an univocal code and prove that even two perfect strangers can establish a connection if they’re willing to dig deep inside themselves and the person standing in front of them.
-F
