WONDER AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
by Luca Sorbo
Marco Maraviglia’s photographic and professional work is characterized by a deep love for Naples and a great civil tension. Marco is an easy-going and ironic man and he knows a direct denunciation isn’t very effective in a city capable of digesting every tragedy. Now, I think, he decided to involve his fellow-citizens in a visual game to force them to look at their city more carefully. We are immersed in beauty. More than two thousand years of history has given us splendid testimonies; yet many palaces and many monuments disappear from sight as we are immersed in our everyday lives. How many people are not aware of the Tribunals Street Pietrasanta bell tower, one of the most important examples of the Middle Ages in Naples?
Now, Marco decided to disorient us with his Impossible Project and used our sense of wonder to make us discover everyday life. Recounting an entire city is complex, perhaps impossible. It’s hard to get an overview of the metropolis. It is no longer possible to get a Strozzi Table, which outlines the main sites starting from a single point of view.
A photographer knows he has to catch the spectator’s eyes; he has to use visual maneuvers to captivate one’s attention. Photomontage is the combination of different images, which are linked by analogy or by contrast to produce a visual shock. It is also a spontaneous procedure of our mind that associates places freely. One of the first photographers to use it was Henry Peach Robinson in the 1950’s. He took care of retouching portraits, which applied color and corrected imperfections directly on the positive. Dissatisfied with the performance of the film of the time, he extensively used the double exposure technique to render the landscape correctly. Moreover, he used more negatives to form a single photograph, as in the famous “Fading Away”, in which the image was composed of five negatives. The Hausman and Hearfield Dadaists also used the technique of photomontage in the 1930’s to shock the lower middle-class outlook of the era. The provocation of the image had to push the viewer to go beyond the facts. Rodchenkolo from Russia used them to effectively communicate the message of the revolution. Man Ray thought the random assemblage was the result of André Breton’s surrealist teachings.
Marco is very skilled at the photomontaging technique. As any good professional knows, the expression lives in competency. Therefore, he is very careful in cutting and in the editing of the images. His game is intriguing and it’s hard to ignore the curiosity in recognizing the places.
In Plato’s Theaetetus section 155d, Socrates is famously quoted: “For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is only the beginning of philosophy...” Philosophy is born from awe: everything that is usual and predictable doesn’t arouse attention yet everything that is unpredictable is attractive. Impossible Naples conjures up the surroundings as something new; in wonder, the eyes open.
Let’s get carried away by our eyes while we look at the works of Marco; let wonder allow us to rediscover the city’s charm and beauty.
© Luca Sorbo
Translation: Anthony Iacomino
by Luca Sorbo
Marco Maraviglia’s photographic and professional work is characterized by a deep love for Naples and a great civil tension. Marco is an easy-going and ironic man and he knows a direct denunciation isn’t very effective in a city capable of digesting every tragedy. Now, I think, he decided to involve his fellow-citizens in a visual game to force them to look at their city more carefully. We are immersed in beauty. More than two thousand years of history has given us splendid testimonies; yet many palaces and many monuments disappear from sight as we are immersed in our everyday lives. How many people are not aware of the Tribunals Street Pietrasanta bell tower, one of the most important examples of the Middle Ages in Naples?
Now, Marco decided to disorient us with his Impossible Project and used our sense of wonder to make us discover everyday life. Recounting an entire city is complex, perhaps impossible. It’s hard to get an overview of the metropolis. It is no longer possible to get a Strozzi Table, which outlines the main sites starting from a single point of view.
A photographer knows he has to catch the spectator’s eyes; he has to use visual maneuvers to captivate one’s attention. Photomontage is the combination of different images, which are linked by analogy or by contrast to produce a visual shock. It is also a spontaneous procedure of our mind that associates places freely. One of the first photographers to use it was Henry Peach Robinson in the 1950’s. He took care of retouching portraits, which applied color and corrected imperfections directly on the positive. Dissatisfied with the performance of the film of the time, he extensively used the double exposure technique to render the landscape correctly. Moreover, he used more negatives to form a single photograph, as in the famous “Fading Away”, in which the image was composed of five negatives. The Hausman and Hearfield Dadaists also used the technique of photomontage in the 1930’s to shock the lower middle-class outlook of the era. The provocation of the image had to push the viewer to go beyond the facts. Rodchenkolo from Russia used them to effectively communicate the message of the revolution. Man Ray thought the random assemblage was the result of André Breton’s surrealist teachings.
Marco is very skilled at the photomontaging technique. As any good professional knows, the expression lives in competency. Therefore, he is very careful in cutting and in the editing of the images. His game is intriguing and it’s hard to ignore the curiosity in recognizing the places.
In Plato’s Theaetetus section 155d, Socrates is famously quoted: “For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is only the beginning of philosophy...” Philosophy is born from awe: everything that is usual and predictable doesn’t arouse attention yet everything that is unpredictable is attractive. Impossible Naples conjures up the surroundings as something new; in wonder, the eyes open.
Let’s get carried away by our eyes while we look at the works of Marco; let wonder allow us to rediscover the city’s charm and beauty.
© Luca Sorbo
Translation: Anthony Iacomino
