Man and nature
To mend nature means, in my opinion, first of all mending the relationship that binds us to it, the relationship between man and nature.
In the last century, in correspondence with the boom in technological progress, our relationship with nature has changed.
It has gone from being based on a sort of tacit and mutual respect (a relationship paradigm that has lasted since the dawn of time, I would dare to say) to a form of apparent supremacy of man, towards nature.
The fact of being able to divert the flow of rivers, reclaim swampy areas and create desert areas has given modern man a false sense of omnipotence.
A sense of which today we reap the “fruits”; climatic overheating, periods of drought alternating with violent flooding, rising sea levels.
These are phenomena that do not concern only the future (which we should take care of anyway since it is the main legacy we leave to our children) but characterize our present in an increasingly violent way with their aftermath of death, damage and famine.
Stop
We must stop as long as we have time, and pick up the thread that will allow us to mend, as far as possible, our relationship with nature.
It is not an “ecological” discourse, it is just “common sense” and self-care and this is a conviction that I have made for my time and that, as far as I can, I also try to convey in my photographs.
In fact, when I find myself shooting naturalistic subjects, whether it is the Arctic night animated by the Aurora Borealis or a Maldivian beach, I try to put my photographic technique at the service of that empathic feeling that, right at that moment, is binding me to the natural subject that I’m shooting.
It is not easy because sometimes we run the risk, in the spasmodic search for technical perfection, of losing the meaning of the message that our photo wants to convey.
Even in photography
We must always remember, before pressing the shutter, why we are photographing.
Are we simply trying to keep an appeal on film or do we rather want to convey a message, a suggestion, a state of mind?
I almost always find myself in the second case and, looking at the galleries of this site, you will not necessarily find the best photos but those I have selected because they still manage to reproduce the moment in my mind (intended as space and time ) in which I made them.
I remember that one of the best compliments I have ever received in recent years was that of a person looking at a night shot I stole around Rome (and therefore not a naturalistic subject) during the lockdown.
He had defined that emptiness and silence as “moving” and perfectly capable of telling the true essence of that desert that Covid has brought to our cities.
Here, I believe that photography has, among others, the task of telling the “moving” of that part of the “green” universe that lives off the asphalt and concrete of our cities.
Photography will not be able to turn back certain hands in the relationship between man and nature, it will not be able to stop global warming by itself.
But (as happened, for example, when images were able to tell the story of wars or great events of the past better than the news) it can become a vehicle, among many others, capable of sowing collective awareness and giving life to a greater sensitivity towards health. of our Planet.
On the other hand, light and color are the basic ingredients of every photograph. Nature is the primary vegetable garden that provides us with these ingredients. Maybe we should start from here …
