© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

Tell us about the project “Run boy run” selected for the Urbanautica Institute Awards? What is the motivation and the theme you addressed?

Alessio Pellicoro (AP): The Paolo VI hippodrome represents for me a large part of my childhood. My mother worked there for over 40 years as an accountant and I often visited her in the office fantasizing about what everyday life was like beyond the fences where the stables are. I remember the moments when I anxiously waited for the horses to come out to enter in the track for the daily training, it was fascinating to me to see them galloping on such a deserted and so large track. It was like imagining them free, wild. By now my mother is now retired and one day talking with her about what she was doing in that place I thought of going back, so here is “Run boy run”. The world of horse racing is now in its darkest age, and in honor of the times when I fantasized on the track, it seemed right and very exciting to dedicate myself to telling the behind the scenes of this almost forgotten world.

What are the practical difficulties you faced in its development?

AP: It wasn’t easy at all to juggle that environment. Working in the stables was very complicated because I ran the constant risk of hindering the people who work there, and it was essential to know their times and rhythms. I also wanted my presence in the project not to be too declared, I wanted everything to be influenced as little as possible by my interaction with it, to blend in to capture the true essence of everyday life that reigns there. Not being an insider of that environment, it took a while to integrate myself between the staff and the animals, but after days and days of work it has become my everyday life too.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

From an editorial point of view, what choices guided you in the selection of the final portfolio?

AP: Color consistency has always been one of the most important guidelines I follow for selection. The entire project must respects a coherent atmosphere that is well set up and pursued at the beginning. This gives it narrative strength and a precise aesthetic, but at the same time defines my authorial character.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

How does this work fit in your identity statement as a photographer and if relates any with your previous works?

AP: My constant and obsessive search for identity in what surrounds me pushed myself to produce this project, for this reason I believe that it relates quite well to what I usually do. Even if I always try to be detached from what I want to tell, the identity and the intimate essence of what I treat manages to emerge through my photographs (or at least that’s what I try to do). “Run boy run” also combines fundamental aspects of my research such as landscape, anthropized places and popular identity.

From a methodological point of view, what is your approach to the medium? How do you envision or conceptualize the projects?

AP: Research is the basis of every project. I try to gather as much information as possible about the topic in question so that I can acquire full awareness of the fundamental aspects. The research flows by internet, books, essays, social media, whatever may be useful to me. looking at photographic projects and approaches of other authors to similar topics also helps me a lot, this to create a mood-board and get an idea of the possible visual paths that I can take. The next step before starting the work consists of on-site inspections where I use to take visual notes with a compact, I need to understand the conditions of light, the depth of the spaces and to make an idea of the optics to be used to produce the final images.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

What are the themes that interest you, what generally attracts your observation?

AP: Currently my interest is focused on the search for identity, whether it is the identity of places, cultures, but also of simple everyday realities. Investigating their essence, examining the particular characteristics of each fragment that composes them. Each small constituent represents a clue that leads me to construct the history of things that capture my curiosity.

Do you privilege any camera, process, equipment in particular?

AP: I don’t use a complicated photographic equipment, I just need a full-frame and fixed focal length optics (they are more performing in terms of definition and suffer less light aberrations). I think that you have to work without suffering excessive weight caused by equipment, this allows you to move more easily and travel greater distances. A fundamental element of my equipment is the tripod, it gives me time to think and compose the scene.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

Do you dialogue with other experts when developing your work?

AP: Dialogue with other photographers and experts is fundamental in this profession. Sometimes you need to be able to step away from what your own eyes produced, so other eyes can help you to see critically what you do. Furthermore, I still consider myself a neophyte in this profession and I still need to learn a lot, therefore any criticism and advice are welcome.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

Any interesting books that you recommend and that recently inspired you and why?

AP: A book I recently read is “Texts” of Lewis Baltz. It isn’t a photo book even though it indirectly has a lot to do with photography, this explains that you don’t need a photograph to give you the awareness needed to create one. I don’t think there is a need to introduce an author as great as Lewis Baltz, but before this book I had never considered him an essayist and an “everyday life” theorist. In this book I found countless useful references for my work, his ability to tell his life, news topics, cinematography, history and the world outside him unconsciously pushes you to look outside the front door with different eyes. I prefer not to reveal any chapter, but I hope it arouses in more than someone the desire to read it.

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

© Alessio Pellicoro from the series "Run Boy Run"

Who or what does influence your work in particular? Is there any contemporary artist, photographer or writer you’d like to mention?

AP: An artist who has always influenced me with his works is Alec Soth. His way to do photography could almost be defined as a visual novel, this has always been what fascinated me. His slow and calculated approach is a great inspiration to me. Like him also Bryan Schutmaat, poetry in black and white.

And do you have any projects in the pipeline? Or topics you would like to address?

AP: I am currently working on a project of documentation and cataloging of the cultural heritage of southern Italy assigned to me by the ministry of cultural heritage, in particular by the ICCD institute (Central Institute for Catalog and Documentation). A very big job that is involving other photographers besides me with the aim of creating vast digital itineraries that can be consulted thanks to a portal that will be specially created and made available to anyone to consult the content. An innovative way to use archival photography, eliminating large infrastructural restrictions and making public information easy to access.

Alessio Pellicoro (website)
Winner Urbanautica Institute Awards 2021