The face - Limited Edition 3 of 10 Photograph

During the first months of 1997 a violent protest rise up in Albania. People are protesting against the government of the country, guilty of the collapse of the financial pyramids that led Albanians to loose their bank investments. The army barracks and weapon depots are plundered. People rush to arm themselves. Old tensions are cleared by Kalash. Crowds of desperate people are taking the way of the Adriatic sea again and try to reach Italy hoping for a new life. In the effort to stop such a new wave of refugees, Italian government sends its army to Albania, to restore order. From my notebook of that journey “Vlore, Albania, 1997. The sun is already high on the sky but Kalashnikov shots are resounding everywhere. They are not about to quit. In front of the “byreqtore” where I’m having my breakfast, a man is shot almost to death. Agonizing, he’s set into gangster's Mercedes and brought away, through the fear and impotence of the people around. Not even the news that Italian Navy will land tomorrow at dawn is stopping them. I’m finding my way amongst the poor buildings of the port. I want to reach the hill where the neuropsychiatric hospital should be. A car slows besides and approaches me. The four men inside command me, though smiling, to proceed not: ‘You will find nothing good to you here.’ I go back on my steps, turn around the quarter and climb the hill from another side. I finally arrive in front of the entrance: ‘Spitali Nevropsiqiatrik Ali Mihali Vlore’. High bounding walls and a big iron gate, open! I call in vain for a guardian, but no one seems to be there. I walk through the path that takes to the first building. The door is open. I enter in. I can’t recall for how long I’m in there, frantically walking in the building, amongst open bedrooms and patiences that, smiling, pose for my camera, when I see three nurses coming straight to me, asking what I am doing there. My reasons exposed, the three welcome me and take me on to visit the whole hospital. It seems a feast. I realize I am an enjoyable diversion for all those people that seem sectioned not. The only locked gate I find is the one that divides the women premises from the men ones. Patiences are free to move in the whole hospital. I come across patiences in the kitchens which are waiting for lunch time. Others are watching out of their room windows while their doors are open. I arrive on the square in front of the main building, which is dominating the town of Vlore. Under the early, warm sun of this Albanian spring I ask one of them why don’t they take advantage of the open doors to get out of here. His reply leaves me speechless: ‘To get out? To get where? Out there they are shooting. Out there they are all crazy!’.” I remember how the picture of this young woman happened. I entered one of the many open rooms in the women premises and she were just laying on her bed, under her blankets. As she saw me, with my camera, some light sparked on her eyes. She jumped up on her bed and started to make up her hair. Then she started with that pose, straight to my lens. I took three or four pictures. At every single shot she were fixing again her hair and retake her pose. She looked so professional in modelling. I had no chance to ask her or to ask others about her story. That was my first time ever in a mental hospital and I was so excited that I was feeling under hypnosis. I can only remember what happened in that one hour I was inside there by the pictures I developed time after my return home. And I found this mazing portrait of that young sectioned woman in my contact sheets. Many people ask me why do I prefer to shoot in black and white many of my subjects instead of color. The answer is very simple fr me. Colors yield to emotions. When I want my photos to focus on what-it-is in the most realistic way possible, I choose no colors. I like to make something hat can be viewed with the most objectivity possible, thus leaving up to the observer the will or not to feel one specific emotion or not. It’s a way to bring what I saw to my audience, without the will to drive them to a specific emotion. Emotions are subjective. Different persons can react in different ways in front of the same scene. I don’t want to interact with that personal process. That’s why I choose black and white so often.

Photography:Black & White on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:10

Size:16.1 W x 24 H x 0 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.