Giuseppe Mastromatteo - Indepensense
Giuseppe Mastromatteo’s portraits bring poetic Surrealism back to life. They could be collages, but take
advantage of the subtlety of digital technology to reproduce humanity in impossible and illusory
dimensions. Ripped faces, eyes and ears which run through hands, are the centre of an imaginary truth
that draws inspiration from the visions of Magritte and Man Ray to land inside a new visual synthesis
with stylistic patterns representing the most contemporary photography of our time, in a continuous
overlapping of visual languages that live in the world of advertising and genuine research.
Backgrounds are white, the light homogeneous: nothing averts the detailed expressions in the characters
of this silent and fascinating theatre of the absurd.
Transfigured bodies, pierced and lacerated do not show any form of violence, but instead pose solemnly
in front of the photographer’s lens, beyond any suffering.
No expression exists in these faces, there is no tension, but rather a sense of timelessness that leaves
us open to reflect about the uncertainty of this third millennium.
The observer’s eye is immediately attracted by the extravagance of these creatures, which at the same
time produces a true sense of discomfort and uneasiness. Mastromatteo intervenes in the interior sense
of beauty. The models he chooses for his images bring to the stage classic canons of harmony and
equilibrium creating a complex dialectict between fascination and repulsion.
From here the evident sensation emerges of discovering oneself in front of a Pantheon where every
possibility of self identification is precluded.
A universe unto itself is the object of aesthetic contemplation and intriguing reverence, magnified
by the means with which this is all narrated because photography continues to maintain a link
with an indissoluble reality of facts.
The process of recognition inherent in portrait photography appears as something distant.
Physiognomy comes to light only to recover the aesthetic detail of our time.
Reality and fiction appear as outdated ideas with full attention focusing on memory. As a conclusion,
in order to bring together feelings and fragments of this project, photography in itself seems not enough
and becomes something more, transforming into a metaphor of itself, reaching the final objective
of communicating through other forms and channels.
30.11.2021
advantage of the subtlety of digital technology to reproduce humanity in impossible and illusory
dimensions. Ripped faces, eyes and ears which run through hands, are the centre of an imaginary truth
that draws inspiration from the visions of Magritte and Man Ray to land inside a new visual synthesis
with stylistic patterns representing the most contemporary photography of our time, in a continuous
overlapping of visual languages that live in the world of advertising and genuine research.
Backgrounds are white, the light homogeneous: nothing averts the detailed expressions in the characters
of this silent and fascinating theatre of the absurd.
Transfigured bodies, pierced and lacerated do not show any form of violence, but instead pose solemnly
in front of the photographer’s lens, beyond any suffering.
No expression exists in these faces, there is no tension, but rather a sense of timelessness that leaves
us open to reflect about the uncertainty of this third millennium.
The observer’s eye is immediately attracted by the extravagance of these creatures, which at the same
time produces a true sense of discomfort and uneasiness. Mastromatteo intervenes in the interior sense
of beauty. The models he chooses for his images bring to the stage classic canons of harmony and
equilibrium creating a complex dialectict between fascination and repulsion.
From here the evident sensation emerges of discovering oneself in front of a Pantheon where every
possibility of self identification is precluded.
A universe unto itself is the object of aesthetic contemplation and intriguing reverence, magnified
by the means with which this is all narrated because photography continues to maintain a link
with an indissoluble reality of facts.
The process of recognition inherent in portrait photography appears as something distant.
Physiognomy comes to light only to recover the aesthetic detail of our time.
Reality and fiction appear as outdated ideas with full attention focusing on memory. As a conclusion,
in order to bring together feelings and fragments of this project, photography in itself seems not enough
and becomes something more, transforming into a metaphor of itself, reaching the final objective
of communicating through other forms and channels.
30.11.2021