© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

Tell us about the project “Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning” selected for the Urbanautica Institute Awards? What is the motivation and the theme you addressed?

Francesco Levy (FL): The project started during an artist residency in Paris in 2018, when the Italian Cultural Institute invited me to develop a photographic project that could approach the Italian culture to the French one. Finding a theme to work on was not easy, also because there was the risk of falling into the clichés quite typical for an over-photographed and represented city like Paris. The year 2018 was the centenary of the end of the First World War, so looking for a topic that had the end of the war as a background, I stumbled upon the crazy story of Jacopozzi. An Italian-born engineer was commissioned to build a copy of Paris to deceive the German bombers who caused many victims, even among civilians in the cities. The crazy and utopian character of the project and the fact that it was unknown to most prompted me to start the work.

What are the practical difficulties you faced in its development? Which choices guided you in the selection of the final portfolio?

FL: Approaching the work, the total absence of physical evidence and archival material certainly complicated my life. Still, it was also the springboard to free my imagination, looking for traces of this incredible story in the streets of Paris, trying to identify myself with Jacopozzi. Although I had little time to finish and present the project, I shot a lot. I walked back and forth along the Seine, always collecting new clues and points of view, trying to put myself in Jacopozzi’s shoes. I wanted the final rendering of the project to give the idea of ​​an artist’s studio, of something still in progress and the planning stage, combining my shots with maps, drawings, and notes. I combined the images representing the urban space with the more conceptual ones, a continuous dialogue between past and present.

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

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

FL: “Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning” is a project that continues my artistic research that began with my previous project, “Azimuths of Celestial Bodies.” It’s about focusing on memory and people and facts linked to the past and that are still traced in the present because they are part of broader historical-social dynamics.

What are the themes that interest you, what generally attracts your observation? And how do you envision or conceptualize the projects?

FL: I am very interested in themes related to both collective and personal history and memory and the family. The archive certainly plays an essential role in this. I cannot say what exactly attracts my gaze because there is probably not one thing in particular but various and in various forms and facets. I like creating still life with objects and materials related in some way to the project I’m carrying out. Also, in “Random Notes” there are several. There are various ways I approach a topic to be addressed, often having to do with the reality that surrounds me, but they are also the result of erratic research. The study part is essential for me to find the best ideas and a line to follow in the project; it’s also one of my favorite parts. I like working with archives and trying to combine different approaches and techniques to the images I shoot as collages and digital alterations.

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

How did you start with photography? And how did it evolve?

FL: I grew up in an environment that has always been very connected to art. I spent my childhood in a stimulating environment, which helped me develop my imagination and skills. My mother is a set designer and worked in theater for many years. I arrived at photography relatively late; being my background more pictorial/figurative, I started to be interested in it during the last years of the Academy in Venice. At the time, I had a compact camera with which I shot images related to my daily life but which I used mainly as a starting point for drawing or painting. The process has reversed; unfortunately, over time, I have no longer drawn with the constancy I had before but use drawing to prepare my shots. Especially in portraits or images that need a more conceptual composition, it is helpful for me to make small preparatory sketches, as is done with paintings.

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

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

FL: My studies have been fundamental in the development of my design method. I attended an experimental art high school specializing in Architecture. Planning and attention to simple forms, together with a particular aesthetic rigor, is something I learned in those years, which I have now rediscovered in my artistic practice. The Academy of Fine Arts in Venice was an essential passage. I learned a lot, especially on a theoretical and working methodology level. They were critical years, also with a view to understanding which expressive medium suited me best. After the academy, I attended a three-year photography course at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence, which I loved from the first moment, feeling like I was part of a family and which made me take the final leap in quality.

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

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

FL: I’ve been reading a lot of travel books lately. Probably a reaction to the post-traumatic shock of Covid and the lockdown. I read “Russian Diary,” “Journey with Charlie in search of America” ​​by Steinbeck, and “A Margine dei Meridiani,” a travel diary in South America by Simenon. As for books on photography, one of the cornerstones of my library is definitely “Ping-pong conversation,” the book interview by Francesco Zanot with Alec Soth. Although very different from me in the type of work he produces, he is one of my favorite authors. I recently approached the works of Cesare Pavese, in which I found a genuinely unique poetic that inspired me a lot. I am also a fan of comics: the works of authors such as Hugo Pratt, Goscinny, and Uderzo and the masters of Japanese manga Akira Toryama, Katsuhiro Otomo and Kentaro Miura have always played an important role in the development of my imagination.

© Francesco Levy from the series "Random Notes for a Necessary Urban Planning"

The scenario in which photography is presented and discussed have changed considerably in recent years with the spread of ICT and the digital world. How do you relate to social networks and this expanded field of photography?

FL: In 2013 I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice with a thesis in new media aesthetics, which dealt with the internet, social networks, and augmented reality, how contents go viral, and the search for the self in this new ultra-connected era. In that period, I began to understand more deeply the dynamics related to the web, a phenomenon that I consider extremely interesting because it is inextricably linked to the world of static and moving images and to the representation of the self. I love drawing from this world; you can find endless ideas and a great way to promote yourself and create an online portfolio that is continuously updated and certainly more immediate and easily usable than a website.

LINKS
Francesco Levy (website)
Winner URBANAUTICA INSTITUE AWARDS 2021