The Approach: Testo Critico

The APPROACH

by Victor De Circasia

To honour his land this photographer seems to search for origins, roots, beginnings that are gripped in the most romantic embrace of the landscape His search invariably leads him to an image which has been captured for centuries in countless paintings, prints and photographs; the Italian landscape.

Poetry in photography is often controversial but perhaps especially so when Mazzanti concentrates his interest on the detail of nature rather than the general wider view. Nevertheless, this exercise remains an attempt at a general overview with the allegory of the detail. The nature, poetry and harmony of any landscape are engraved in our memories. The photographer may create an illusion but he also can destroy those memories. Memories that are often perched at the edge of coherence or maybe just beyond our own personal orthodoxies.

These photographs should be approached with a deep feeling for nature and the use of clear logic as these are the elements of Mazzanti’s compositions. He introduces us to the body of photographs as into a great adventure with the authority of creating a new view.

Mazzanti bestows his images with technical props, storytelling and sleight of hand. He goes on location to originate a scene, as if it was one we were forbidden to dream about. In the context and the devise of a new environment he strips away the photographic illusion. While he allows the spectator to be the master of his legacy he holds the keys to the essential resources. The conflicting philosophy of an architectural approach to nature is the restoration of the beauty concept and its presence, in reality, a Tower of Babel in today’s vocabulary. Daring works that fill me with more admiration than pleasure.

The hegemony of the photographs-artefacts goes hand in hand with the idea of a monument that should be photographed at different angles. He photographs a structure with the intention of creating a different discourse outside the main complexity of the landscape itself. An energetic exploration of nature remains one of the best challenges in the use of digital manipulation. He allows the technology to serve the story. The gathering of images moves from day to night, and with the aid of artificial (digital) lighting, the visuals begin to degrade; a disintegration that mirrors the slow breakdown of the image. This ambitious re-creation underscores the possibilities of digital photography and his individual approach. The one-time dogma of refusing the new digital technology in photography was often heard amongst photographers. However, today we can actually see and believe in the illusion of these images.

The one-time dogma of refusing the new digital technology in photography was often heard amongst photographers. However, today we can actually see and believe in the illusion of these images. Mazzanti dominates the effort of safeguarding nature through the presence in his photographs. As a new challenge he stabilizes his work in an exquisite journey of nature and colour. This is especially true as he fearlessly, even recklessly, pushes against the limits of narrative realism and dares us to take a leap of conceptual faith in the treatment of the landscape.

The focus of his appeal remains in the eagerness of his fresh approach to create tension in the fragment as he tries to restore a glorious path to nature. In some photographs there comes a moment of truth when the images either scatter apart memories irreparably or bind them together like a dream.

The connection between nature and reality is critical for Mazzanti. He encompasses an ideal that hinges on his ability to leverage the image into the format, to increase tension and to let you walk through a work of art.

The thorough documentation of his images in various stages and the full vision of them are simultaneously sparse and littered with symbols. His work is an accumulation of precise information that submerges into the plans. An exhausting regimen of study characterized most often by delivering the photographic impression of nature.

He has the exciting task of introducing us to new images that we recognise in the familiar context of nature. It is exhilarating to view these images dealing with structures and photo examples that are, theoretically at least, almost taken for granted by us. His photographs have an emotional sense rather than the common, frustrated technological representation.

The first thing he looks for in nature is what kind of vision-ideal or symbol the element holds for him. With his observations he has a vision of portraying and communicating these challenges.

Mazzanti comes with the confidence of experience informed by many years of research; a high standard of contemporary technical skills; the detailed positioning of the work to be photographed and an obvious plan: but he is also aware of the constant battle that is defining his work in the photographic format.

The strategy for creating his photographs is to maximise the control over the element and to do careful technical evaluations, as in a laboratory environment, but for all the careful human observation and considerations when the shutter is pressed (as he points out) nature makes the final decision. We ultimately fall back on the intangible questions of frame, colour evaluation, structures etc. His pieces are a constant detective work from his long walks. He is able to judge the display, the dream-vision of a new image or the effect of time on the environment.

”I would like to share the vision of the landscape, the images and elements in nature that motivates me, but I also want to feel a certain kind of excitement in the air when I tour the country side for a location or when I take the elements into the lab to control exposure, colour or form.”

His work suggests a man driven by the love of nature and always hoping to give us with his photographs an impression of a formal element. He wants to bring a vision which makes us more emotional about his representation of nature. The cosmos has a hidden structure for us and we are excited by the discoveries of our own environment. The photographs of Mazzanti are a new voyage of observation in photography; we are the protagonists in a familiar meeting that never ends. His images are an encounter with elements dear to us demonstrating that we are constant visitors to the universe.

We should go out there as Mazzanti: willing to see what is the experience of being alive and in touch with nature. A sense of approach.