we will let the images present this artist from the Marche autonomously (that independence from the author that characterizes every word, photo book made public).
on the other hand, and especially when it comes to figurative arts, perhaps it is precisely these that tell us more about the author than some meager personal or scholastic reference. I believe.
Here, now, after having formed an idea, certainly approximate and fleeting but certainly impactful, about Lorenzo Cicconi Massi, we can try to read and guess, between the lines of this interview, the person, the photographer, the director, the artist.
Did photography choose you or did you choose it?
Without a shadow of a doubt, I chose it; Since I was a child I have been interested in acting and directing, so as soon as I could put my eye behind the lens, I did.
It happened with photography first, as at the time it was certainly more accessible to be able to afford a camera rather than a video camera. The costs of the video material were truly exorbitant. As luck would have it, I had a friend as a playmate whose father owned a photography shop, and right here was where Giacomelli took his rolls of film to develop.
From that character full of charm, from curiosity, it was a moment to move into the darkroom; not exactly with momentum I would say, given that the attraction for the moving image at the time still had the clear upper hand, while today, yes, I can say that the two things balance each other out.
So if it hadn't been photography, it would have been cinema, direction?
Well let's say that without a doubt it would have been an expressive area and I can certainly add also a creative one: to say, today, I regret not having followed the piano lessons, which my father had introduced me to: I would also like to be able to express myself with music , compose, accompany my images with other types of personal expression;
I have an inexhaustible desire to bring to light the multitude of ideas that grow inside me: it is a mostly winning instinct, prevalent over others, even if I must admit that in certain moments it is necessary to stop: partly because the creative moment is not always active in and of itself, partly because it doesn't always lead to good results.
We stop to find the right path, adjust our aim, and sometimes to direct quite ferocious self-criticism towards ourselves.
Where does this creative spirit come from, where does it draw nourishment?
I believe it is a virtuous circle that must be triggered inside the head and, if you ask me the expression, also inside the heart.
Wherever you look, everything takes on new contours, different facets: you begin to look at it with different eyes and it is natural to want to interpret it in your own, personal way, to turn it around by passing it through your own personal filters.
Obviously, for this circle to close and continue to feed on itself, there must be positive feedback, otherwise it will die out on its own.
It is from the confirmation, from the positive reactions deriving from the emotions aroused in those who follow you that, well, you begin to think more and more within the expressive methods, looking for new ones, your own: a simple subject, a sunset so to speak, which gradually , manages to transform itself into something metaphorical.
And it's all a continuous evolution: you find yourself extending your vision towards everything that arouses interest, in the awareness that what involves you today is absolutely not necessarily what will arouse interest tomorrow. In short, it is a long, inexorable process that could also lead to the need to nourish other, new, expressive needs.
In short, photography evolves and transforms as the photographer grows and changes.
Absolutely yes.
So if you were to look at yourself, back in time, how has your photography and your way of capturing the world changed?
There are some things that are truly fixed points: my desire to represent human situations, even when it comes to inert subjects, (I am referring to the works commissioned for high-end furniture products, glasses, design objects): there is always the desire to make them come to life, albeit in a visionary, metaphysical environment, the fruit of my imagination, perhaps being less interested in the very contours of the subject.
When I found myself photographing children for the first series I made (for which I won the Canon award), I was little interested in the child as a portrait expressiveness:
I photographed their running figures, the blurred effect of their clothes, allowing me to enter a suspended, more distant dimension of memory, of fantasy,
They weren't simple portraits, the children became stage actors with their whole bodies, not with their faces, since that wasn't what I wanted to tell.
I wanted to evoke a world linked to memories.
Why black and white?
For the same reason: removing the color helps me increase, sometimes create, this sense of visionaryness that my photography expresses;
all in all I can use color in video images, not always. Let's say that I entrusted the representation of color to the moving image and that of black and white to the still image.
You have dedicated a lot of your time to the landscapes, to the humanity of our region, how have you been influenced by this belonging?
I'm from the Marche region, clearly I didn't choose to be born there but I chose to stay there as much as possible.
In the Marche I found, in the millions of kilometers that I traveled up and down crossing our hills, through the sea or the mountains, I not only found inspiration, but the natural scenery to set the visions I had.
I made, in a certain way, a certain rational choice: the desire to get to know the place where I was given to live as best I could, the places that are closest and most familiar to me without needing to search for backgrounds, sets , or situations or people that I find here.
For the same photographs of high-end products, which we talked about just before, I tried to carry out the tasks entrusted to me, right here, in the Marche: I find everything there, hills, sea, mountains, there are open landscapes, in short, wonderful natural backdrops .
I love the countryside: one of my greatest photographic or cinematographic desires would be to be able to go back in time to see and represent the countryside of the past.
Well, the interview ended right after these considerations on our wonderful Marche, so splendidly told by these latest images.
Biographical Notes:
He was born in 1966 in Senigallia where he still lives.
In 1991 he defended his degree thesis in sociology "Mario Giacomelli and the Misa group in Senigallia".
He begins his photographic research work in black and white. At the same time she made the first low-cost short films, which were awarded at some festivals and then broadcast by Tele + and Rai.
In 1999 he obtained first prize at Canon competition. Since January 2000 he has been one of the photographers ofContrasto agency. His research develops and draws suggestions mostly by looking at the human and landscape realities of his land.
His works have been awarded in numerous competitions, published by the major Italian newspapers and exhibited in two solo exhibitions at the Treffpunkt Galerie in Stuttgart and at the Stadthaus in Ulm.
Since 2006 some of his prints have been part of the collection Forma, prestigious center for photography in Milan and the American gallery of Nile Tuzun.
In 2007 he was awarded in the “sports features singles” section at W, with a work on young Chinese footballers.
In the spring of 2007 he received the GRIN award
He exhibited the exhibition “Trip around home“, with catalog published by Contrasto. The same exhibition was exhibited in October 2007 at the centre Forma of Milan.
He made his directorial debut with the feature film “Try to fly” which stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Ennio Fantastichini and Antonio Catania.
(Source: www.lorenzocicconimassi.it)
