Urbanautica

FELIPE RUSSO. LEAVE MY DAILY EXPERIENCE RICHER

by Steve Bisson

«For the last seven or eight years I have been working in the same region of the city, an area I think I know better than when I started.»

Felipe how did you get so close to photography?

Felipe Russo (F.R.): I began photographing to produce illustrating reports from research laboratories. My images filled descriptive chapters of the "materials and methods" used by researchers in their field. This work allowed me to travel, and anyone with a bit of curiosity and a camera in the hand is quickly carried away by desires and impulses. The sight and hearing have always been important to me, since I was a child I loved to observe and listen. Once with the camera in hand I let myself go and I started to photograph the surroundings of the research facilities. I was fascinated by the direct way that photography allows us to produce visual notes about the world and our everyday experience.

Photography is a relational practice, a medium of expression that allows a fluid experience of interaction with space and or people around us. The camera is the mediating instrument of a physical, sensorial and intellectual contact with the world around me, photography fascinates me as a space for learning and questioning. Through it I raise questions and try to create ways to understand them. The photographic process within my works does not seek to exhaust subjects but rather to raise possible meanings, to create worlds that move us from a daily visibility of the city, its spaces and objects and maybe to look more closely. Photography helps me to be present, to reach fulness and more connected to the world within a daily experience of life, I am grateful for it. The work of other photographers has profoundly transformed my everyday experience, I believe that photography has that strength. The impression is given in the encounter between a person, a camera and the world. The image derived from this encounter is another entity, an object loaded with its own senses. In the photographs, at least some of them, we can discover hidden senses that through our body mediation return to the world.

You have an educational background in biology. Can you tell us how this influenced your work...

FR: Yes, I'm a biologist. I worked for some years as research assistant at the Laboratory of Landscape Ecology and Conservation at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of São Paulo. At the time I was studying the trees population dynamics among the Atlantic Forest surroundings of São Paulo. In my 'Scientific Initiation' I walked for months on a small "Forest Island", nothing but an urban green fragment. At first everything looked the same, a green spot. I was guided in the woods by the almost 2000 numbered trees and their respective numbers marked as points on an abstract map of the area. I kept walking for six months into that space, 3 or 4 times a week, and by the end of that period everything had changed. I was able to recognize small details, marks and to identify small transformations. I could better read and understand space, and wonder about its time, and history. I could recognize in the physical constitution aspects of its interaction and interdependence with the landscape. Finally I was able to navigate without the help of the map.

This transformation helped my research and to unfold in my imagination a world of fabulating stories and possible events, as if I could imagine the woods beyond time. I still believe in careful observation and time, both remain key allies in my work. Landscape Ecology seeks to identify the linkage of point phenomena, or small stories, with the broader perspective of the territory. I continue to have a deep interest in this link, the link between seemingly unimportant structures and their connection to larger systems. Today I look at the city and its spaces because this is where I live and where my story is built, but I still observe, as I did in the woods, to produce images and works that allow us to see beyond the moment and to observe phenomena that are build in an outstretched historical time which influences our present, our subjectivity and life in the city.

Between 2011 and 2014 you created the project 'Centro'. This work speaks first and foremost of a need to relate to your city, São Paulo, to explore it, to tell it through its spontaneous gestures. The 'Centro' appears as a catalog of informal interventions that speak of the urban nature of this voracious and ever-changing city.

FR: 'Centro' is a very important job for me, its production was a process of discovery. 'Centro' prompted a possible path for my photography in the city. Its construction was very free and helped me to understand the importance of a series of "rituals" that are now a fundamental part of my process. The city is really voracious and the region that I photographed underwent intense transformations. 'Centro' certainly speaks of this instability, but always from the point of view of the individual, of the one who occupies, transforms and needs to build landmarks, memories and spaces of affection to live in the city.

© Felipe Russo from the series 'Centro'

I see the objects photographed as monuments that celebrate small gestures of transformation. São Paulo deals badly with its memory and in 'Centro' I try to create images that visually transform interventions within the landscape of the city to elevate its status of importance. Were these monuments capable of storing the history of this city? What objects could hold the affection and memory of those who live in it? In the series I approach different scales of intervention while seeking to deconstruct a hierarchy of importance in the construction of the urban landscape. São Paulo is the result of the accumulation of gestures of the most distinct scale, in this sense the work presents a will of resistance. 'Centro' is also the construction of a sense of city, the attempt to account for a subjective experience of space, a desire that permeates all my work.

In 'Garagem Automática' series the viewer discovers an urban machine model, an important chapter in the urban history of the city of São Paulo, and the figure of the architect Rino Levi. These buildings responded to a futuristic vision while nowadays they reveal a mechanical structure that projects us to a dimension that taste of industrial archeology. What motivated you to enter these buildings? Please explain the choice to represent through a video the organic dimension of these 'ante litteram' automated robots.

FR: Those who walk through the center of São Paulo inevitably notice these buildings, they are concrete monoliths in the landscape. Their exterior is very striking, the result of a precise architectural design where the savings obtained with poor external finishings enabled the investment in the structure and in the machines of the interior. These extremely functional buildings are designed to be automated garages. The outward appearance always intrigued me, I even photographed them while working on the book 'Centro'. When observing those images taken from the outside I felt the desire to see them from the inside, and this kind of desire is often the beginning of a process. I really believe in a spontaneous impulse, in such a curiosity that push me to see and know more about a space.

© Felipe Russo from the series 'Garagem Automática'

Furthermore I was intrigued by the fact that these buildings are completely fenced spaces where access is not allowed to users. I passed the door of one of the buildings and persuaded the manager to take me for a ride in the elevator. It was an incredible experience, the light-encased interior being illuminated by an industrial elevator that ran through this structural skeleton completely covered with soot and grease. Nothing there was thought for the human presence. It became evident that the interior of this mechanical body was a space of machines, a machine that hosts machines. I knew that I had to photograph these spaces, so I came back the same week with the camera. Then with more time and research I understood the historical context that led to the construction of these buildings and the role they played. I was able to perceive them as physical landmarks of a city's desire, a São Paulo transformed to favor automobiles and the mechanized citizen who would drive work every day to work in the center.

© Felipe Russo from the series 'Garagem Automática'

Rino Levi was one of the architects who worked with the city hall to enable laws and technologies that allowed the verticalization of the parking lots, but I think it is important to mention that these issues permeate the work but are not central to the experience these images communicate. With time and the experience of staying for hours inside these buildings I could imagine them as bodies or autonomous machines. The "Automatic Garage" is the construction of a prototypical garage and the creation of an interior space that beyond its concrete function becomes a possibility of representation of an inner body of the city itself, as if we could penetrate the bowels of São Paulo. In this context, one of the most striking experiences of this interior was the sound and paced rhythm of the machinery, as if the building operated on its own frequency, which led me to make the video 'Frequency, 2016' in which I observe an electric panel in a control room the pace of life of the building. As in all works the result comes from a reflection on the encounter with the object and from this encounter and theoretical researches I make decisions about the visual construction of the essay.

Can you tell us something in general about how you approach your projects. How do you document and plan your photographic outputs? You said your projects require planning, surveys, involve many walks, the use of analog cameras ...

FR: For the last seven or eight years I have been working in the same region of the city, an area I think I know better than when I started. My atelier is located in the area and I daily moved there. Many of the works were born of free observations of the city. During walks I realize situations and think about possible images. I walk a lot with the camera and allow myself to photograph freely everything that awakens the desire to produce an image. I also spend many hours looking at what I produce and my files. Often the beginning of a work arises from this observation. This initial phase of a work is more intuitive, and I do surf through the images to find ways that speak to me. This production is fueled by varied readings and historical research, but I believe that the formal and conceptual construction of a work is mainly in the encounter with the object photographed and in the editing of the material produced.

Time is essential in this process to understand and focus on what I'm doing. I tend to be involved in more than one project at the same time so I can leave a job aside for a few weeks and resume it more critically later. I need time away from work, time with family, time for other experiences that complete life. Not to get exhausted.

I work with a large format camera and negatives of 4x5 inches that require a certain planning and impose a series of postures in relation to what is photographed. I like to work within the possibilities and limitations of this apparatus and to delve into what this specific feature can give me. I do and follow all stages of the work from research, field trips, search for authorizations, production of images, treatment and completion of support. I prefer to oversee the whole process.

After completing the series 'Centro' I feel that the works have emerged more spontaneously. Sometime I do abandon a work when I am not ready to fully deploy its potentials. Photographs challenge me to continue producing and trying to understand their origin and possible meanings.

A few months ago, you showed me a project on a typical tree species from São Paulo, Tipuana, which is at stake today. Tell us about this work ...

FR: After 'Garagem Automática' I felt the need to return to the street, I was exhausted from working in these closed and noisy spaces. I had been observing for a while Tipuana trees on Ipiranga Avenue. I developed a fascination for the shape of its trunks as opposed to the street constructions.

This species of tree is the most common in the city of São Paulo and it was chosen, due to its physical characteristics, as one of the main species for "afforestation" of the city from 1900. I discovered that the choice is due to the fact of the species growing even in very small portion of soil, withstanding the intense pruning of their trunks and forming a tall, expansive canopy that favors shading. This description tells a lot about our relationship with the green in the city. I photographed all the trees along Ipiranga Avenue and it is impressive to see in their bodies a map of their growth. The shape of their trunks are like maps of their relationship with the surroundings and the city, carved by pruning, shocks with trucks and buses and the search for light. It is fascinating to see also how individuals of the same species can develop such distinct phenotypes due to this relationship with the environment.

The project eventually turned into a series of portraits of very specific individuals. In the images I am also interested in the counterpoint between the organic structure of the trees and the ordered world that we have built. The Tipuanas are very emblematic in the city, they are part of the memory that I have of São Paulo, today many of these trees are mature and old and during the season of heavy rains they end up falling creating accidents and inconveniences in the transit. Tipuana is not a native Brazilian species and today the city has replaced the trees that fall by native species. In a few years we may have few Tipuanas left in São Paulo, and the city's physiognomy will have changed completely.

What are you working on?

FR: I just moved in Paris. I arrived three weeks ago accompanying my companion who came to study. This change must certainly cause changes in my work. For eight years I was photographing the same region of São Paulo and producing works that have a very strong connection with. Works that also have a very strong connection to each other. So now I want to profit from this distance to look at those works and trying to understand them as a group. I am currently working on a publication of the series 'Garagem Automática'. I am working again on the editing and sequencing of the materials. This work has already been presented as an exhibition at the Museum of the City of São Paulo - Casa da Imagem and thinking of it as a book it's a challenge. I spent a lot of time looking at all the images I produced and new photos will be included in the publication.

I am also editing, scanning and processing the images of Tipuana Tipu. This work makes more sense as a book and I must focus on it this year too. When I learned that I would change my city, I began to photograph São Paulo with great intensity. I brought all this material to here, in these images maybe there is another work about the city. These three weeks in Paris have been visually very intense for me. It has been interesting to observe and walk the streets here, I am not familiar with the spaces of the city but I have already begun to produce images, I am sure that I will continue to photograph but I do not know where these images me will take me.

What about your exhibits now? What kind of feedback did you received from your city?

FR: São Paulo has a very strong tradition of photographers who work the city as a subject and today I am very happy to see my work being discussed within this tradition. I really admire some of these photographers and it is special to see the work I have done inserted in this historical dialogue. In 2016 I had the support of the curators of the the Museum of the City of São Paulo - Casa da Imagem for the development of the 'Garagem Automática's project. The Casa da Imagem is one of the most important spaces for the history of photography in the city, most of the historical photographic collections of São Paulo are in this institution, so to expose 'Garagem Automatica' in this museum was an honor. The exhibition had great visibility and good critical discussion, I was able to establish diverse dialogues both with researchers and curators as well as with the public. These exchanges taught me a lot about my work. Today both 'Centro' and 'Garagem Automatica' have been shown in important cultural institutions of the city and I have been able to hear and feel the reaction of people to the work, I am happy to realize that these works cause people to discuss their relationship with the city.

© Installation view at Museu da Cidade de São Paulo - Casa da Imagem, 2016

I found your work inspiring beyond an arts concern. As you mention it should be of interest to those interested in urban research fields (sociologists, anthropologists, architects, urban planners and landscape architects). I'm wrong?

FR: The work has aroused the interest of researchers not only in the field of the arts but also of researcher involved in thinking the city. These works have gone in that direction very naturally and today this connection is extremely important to me. I like to talk and exchange with people from other disciplines and I learn a lot about my work in these exchanges. I have a very strong connection with the practice and tradition of photography itself but I am very personally interested in the possibility of navigating and establishing dialogues with different fields of knowledge. My work is directly connected with my life and these exchanges make me discover new paths and challenges. Even if they do not materialize directly in the form of work these exchanges leave my daily experience richer.

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LINKS
Felipe Russo
Urbanautica Brazil

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