© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

Tell us about the project “L’Aquila. The Shape of Places” selected for the Urbanautica Institute Awards? What is the motivation and the theme you addressed?

Antonio Di Cecco (ADC): L’Aquila. The Shape of Places” is an open project started in 2009 following the L’Aquila earthquake and so it originates from a civic urgency; the first photographs were the visual component of the work carried out by the Collettivo99 (young technicians from L’Aquila) born from the will to contribute to the idea of narrating the changes in living. Subsequently, the project became independent while maintaining constant dialogue with experts from the territory of Aquila. I believe that photography can, in these terms and in this context, be a useful tool for research and verification with respect to the choices of modification and transformation of places.

What are the practical difficulties you faced in its development?

ADC: The continuous modification and transformation of the places generates difficulties in the possibilities of crossing, a practice necessary to understand what are the ways of inhabiting them and the possible forms of their representations.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

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

ADC: I focused on the search for spatial continuity and light, in the relationship between the natural and the artificial, often temporary as the places represented.

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

ADC: It is a work that is at the centre of my identity as a photographer, as I mentioned earlier, it is an open project about my city. For 13 years now, L’Aquila has been changing and continues to change shape, and my way of relating to it and representing it photographically is also constantly changing. Considering it an open project opens points of contact with previous works but also and above all stimuli for the short works developed in the most recent years and for those that will be there in the future.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

Tell us about your approach to photography in general. How did it all start? What are your memories of your first shots? How did it evolve from the early days?

ADC: I began to look with interest at photography during my studies in Architectural Engineering-Architecture in L’Aquila. The photographic representations of architecture in the magazines that I would repeatedly browse in the faculty library spurred me to travel with architectural books in my backpack and a camera in my hand. Over the years, my approach to photography has inevitably changed and the single shot, which I initially considered as a result to be achieved, has given way to the more raw and truthful aesthetics of design research, whose mode is slower and more structured.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

What about your educational path? Did it have any impact on you? Any lessons learned?

ADC: My course of study taught me to look not only at architecture but also, and above all, at urban space. To borrow the words of Bruno Zevi, the greatest lesson was that of “Knowing how to see architecture”.

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

ADC: Space has remained my main interest, over time the mountains have become juxtaposed with urban space. I am very attracted by stratifications, by the way in which objects, shapes and materials overlap; I am interested in the relationship between man, environment and time.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

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

ADC: I consider photography as a tool that is capable of asking the right questions with respect to the conception we have of spaces, places and landscapes. Through the creation of diagrams, drawings and maps, I arrive at the structuring of the project and then at the creation of the photographs that I consider a synthesis of the analysis and study processes.

Does research play any significant role in your practice?

ADC: Yes, that’s what I’m most interested in. Over the years I have gained experiences of shared research in which photography has found dialogue with other disciplines, not only in the final production but also and above all in the design process.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

Do you dialogue with other experts when developing your projects?

ADC: Shared experiences have led me, over time, to choose dialogue with experts from other disciplines as a constant formula in the development of the main projects, I consider it a fundamental moment in the structuring of the project, fruitful on account of the beauty of the exchange and the way in which it prepares us to read the places and the landscape with ever-new eyes.

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

ADC: “The invention of nature: The adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost hero of science” by Andrea Wulf allowed me to look at the landscape in a new and conscious way, both from the point of view of understanding and photographic representation. How important it is to showcase your work.

What about exhibitions or other forms? Any tips or experience to share?

ADC: I think it is important to exhibit your work when it starts to take shape, but I do not think it is necessary to do it all the time. I am interested in mixing different surveys and projects as happened following the invitation of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz to work on the exhibition “Photography and catastrophe,” designed as a dialogue between my personal digital archive and the historical paper archive of the Florentine Institute on the different forms and codes of representation of catastrophe. It was a considerable experience that allowed me to juxtapose the digital image with the print and to open thoughts and reflections on the concept of the photographic archive. The exhibition, designed in a digital mode, subsequently had a physical version and is still available online on the website of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

© Antonio Di Cecco from the series "L'Aquila. The Shape of Places"

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

ADC: In my work there is an attempt to interpret and translate what Georges Perec states in his book “Species of Spaces”: namely, that space is a doubt that must be continually crossed and drawn. Like in the practice of orienteering, in which you cross an unknown landscape with the help of a map and a compass, often the photographic practice becomes the compass that allows me to actually understand what a space is, what a place is, what a landscape is.

How do you see the future of photography evolving?

ADC: I believe that the direction that photography will take will inevitably depend on technological developments; I believe there is a continuous evolution of the medium’s possibilities since technology “invented” the first photographic instrument. I cannot visualise a precise future, but I imagine that the infinitely large and the infinitely small will become increasingly studied and practiced themes of visual representation.

Antonio Di Cecco (website)
Winner Urbanautica Institute Awards 2021