Where do you come from?
MC: I continue to live in the place where I was born and raised, Ascoli Piceno, a town on the border that separates the Marche from Abruzzo. The character of this territory contains connotations common to many other border areas, from which generate special geographies made of strong contrasts and weak balances.
And then photography...
MC: For years I have been looking for an expressive vehicle to convey my desire to communicate personal stories and imaginations. However, I understood the narrative potential of photography only as a mature adult. Before this discovery, I nourished this necessity by observing what surrounded me, giving a very personal sense to all that my gaze cut out in the world. After becoming aware of the potential of the photographic medium, I started a real scholastic course. I felt the need to deepen both the theoretical and practical aspects of photography. Those years I lived in Rome were years driven by a strong need for professional completeness that I was struggling to recognize in myself. It was rather crazy: I lived for three years in a small room that I also used as a darkroom, I spent all afternoon and most of the night practicing to understand the mystery of the negative. I remain very attached to that period of hard work and study: that's where I laid the solid foundation on which I then gave shape and consciousness to my narratives.
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
How is the photographic language changing and how does it impact the lives of people and communities? How do instantaneity and rapid communication influence the role of the photographer and your personal practice?
MC: Today, I think that the moment was rather epic! I lived for three years in a small room that also worked as a darkroom. I spent all afternoon and most of the night practicing, I wanted to understand the mystery of the development of negative films. I remain very attached to that period of hard work and study: there I laid the solid foundations on which I gave form and conscience to my narrations. I think this is a historic moment for photography. Never before has the image played such a strong role in society and in our lives. The declinations that photography has taken are innumerable and the affirmation of digital does not seem to have only updated a secular technique but also fortified old conceptual statutes. Moreover, digital processes have facilitated the contamination between different artistic fields, making interaction, discovery and sharing of contents immediate. Of this singular phase we are experiencing, the speed with which an immoderate amount of information is processed worries me. This bulimic voracity, which always requires new images to be consumed, leads to the production of easy-to-read contents, to the detriment of deeper messages that need more time to be decoded. This excess of information damages the natural process of synthesis of our memory; the same process that allows us to make choices, to have opinions on the world in which we live, on our present.
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
What about your personal photographic work? Your main drivers...
MC: Personally, I am irremediably attracted to all those events that generate change in people and their way of life. I like to identify the anthropological phenomena and the impact they generate in urban and rural spaces. With photography, I like to find and identify anthropological phenomena. For example, what may be the impact that produces small or large changes in the landscape. I live in a territory that is certainly not marked by dynamism and regeneration. Without any premeditation, in an involuntary manner, these spaces often collect a vast stratigraphy of facts, sedimentation of times and sensations. To face investigations of this type, I always start from a stimulus, a suggestion that will be the guiding thread of the whole project.
You have recently published the book Rhapsody with Penisola Edizioni and in collaboration with Urbanautica Institute. In your statement, we read: «in the interiority seen from above everything changes and is displaced in special geography». Can you develop this vision?
MC: Rhapsody is a project that stems from the desire to rediscover new meanings behind the landscapes of my daily life, to return without a hurry, a personal vision of the place where I live. I dedicated my attention to some places I thought I knew well, everyday spaces that I live and walk. This project allowed me to stop and observe, perhaps for the first time, these “known” places. As if, paradoxically, their proximity, and therefore the relative habit of living them, had over time inhibited my ability to perceive them. In an attempt to tell about these spaces so close to my personal story, the main effort was to imagine a different point of view from the usual. The surprising thing is that little by little so many hidden elements were revealed to me.
Still image of the book 'Rhapsody' by Mauro Corinti. Penisola Edizioni / Urbanautica Institute, 2019
Still image of the book 'Rhapsody' by Mauro Corinti. Penisola Edizioni / Urbanautica Institute, 2019
Still image of the book 'Rhapsody' by Mauro Corinti. Penisola Edizioni / Urbanautica Institute, 2019
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
Everyone belongs to one place on earth, and he must pay his tribute to it, writes Mario Benedetti in 'La Tregua', I am from here, and here I pay my tribute. Tell us about the territory you went through with 'Rhapsody'.
MC: I spent most of my photographic experience trying to tell distant realities, both from a geographical and emotional point of view. Thus postponing that deeper confrontation with oneself that every author is called to face sooner or later. Everyone belongs to one place on earth, and he has to pay his tribute to it. These words by one of the greatest South American poet inspired me for this investigation of my own “here”, my place on earth. Working at Rhapsody was a wonderful and tormented respite from the monotony of life.
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
You have lived in Mexico for quite a long time. Tell us about it...
MC: My professional career was structured in Mexico where for several years I worked as an assistant for an advertising photographer and later as a freelancer, collaborating with local and Italian magazines. Almost immediately I realized that the speed and the obligation to propose attractive stories was not my way and I decided to undertake a different journey. I needed more reflexivity, and to respect my time more. Still, I continue to be fascinated above all, by the human landscape of that land, which develops in all directions and in every sense. Closely observing Mexican life, it is spontaneous to be influenced. I think I learned a lot, like, for example, the gift of “know how to wait”, (we are too hasty, we always want to run without even knowing where to go). This has transferred to me the deepest value of life, the importance of words, of what we say and the way we address others.
Any book suggestions for our readers?
MC: La tregua by Mario Benedetti (Nottetempo, 2014), Edward Bunker, Educazione di una canaglia, 2016 Einaudi. And finally Joyce Lussu, Su come la donna, e anche l’uomo, abbiano tentato di sopravvivere e intendano continuare a vivere, 2014 Gwynplaine.
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
© Mauro Corinti from the series 'Rhapsody'
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LINKS
Mauro Corinti
Book 'Rhapsody', Penisola Edizioni/Urbanautica Institute, 2019
Urbanautica Italy
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