Cinematic, ghost-like, surreal? The enigmatic street photography of Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo.
I don’t want to use the word ‘cinematic’ or ‘ghost-like’ but both are qualities that resonate with his body of work.
An Italian magic realism style of street photography that simply intrigues, captivates and demands attention. A fresh, compelling, albeit and somewhat apocalyptic, dark mirror on a world that seems, increasingly, unhinged.
There is a voice, a unique style that tells us almost immediately this is Italian street photographer Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo.
Copyright ⓒ Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo
A man, in silhouette, wearing a heavy coat and a hat stands by a lamppost, above him a mottled, bleak sky, in front of him several buildings. We can feel the cold, we can sense the gloomy night, the loneliness of the figure seen from the back.
Filmic, it could be a still from a 1950’s feature. Michaelangelo Antonioni’s Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) or Franco Rossi’s I Falsari (The Forgers ) perhaps? Or, it could simply be a metaphor for the desperate times we are living through.
“That photograph with the street lamp,” Giovanni informs. “Is, perhaps, the one that better than others represents my inner world. The light of reason, now lost, and the man bent under the weight of culture as he walks … there he encounters ancient ruined buildings but also the desolation of the soul of which Edgar Allan Poe spoke of in his novel The Crow.”
It chimes, to an extent, with my own interpretation. It is a moribund view of the modern world but no less intriguing for that. I found del Vescovo, himself, and his motivations fascinating, his work curious with a magnetic pull to it.
Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo, I had soon discovered, is a philosopher as well as a street photographer.
“On the street I look for,” he said thoughtfully. “Perhaps like Vivian Maier, the presence of culture, but also the surrealism that can be created by observing carefully, meditating and interpreting,”
It is an enigmatic comment but one that entices. These shots are full of phantoms which, for him, resonate, with the late post-modern world. One that has become increasingly difficult to understand and make sense of in any way.
“The ghost that appears in my shots,” he clarifies, and we can hear him think. “The photographic figure is my archetype of post-modernity and the dystopian society in which we live. The silhouettes are floating subjects that move in my mind and appear as if by magic in the shots.”
What is he offering me? The context in which he operates as a street photographer? A philosophical unravelling of contemporary existence as told through the lens?
Copyright ⓒ Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo
He was introduced to photography when his father gave him a Kodak Instamatic camera in 1970
“The same passion for black and white was transmitted to me by my brother,” he went on. “When in 1985 he gave me a CT1G analogue Cosina that I still use today. In particular to shoot in black and white.
“I started photographing, according to the Lomography paradigm, without thinking about taking care of the shot … later I wanted to interpret what I saw, thinking of a figure … so the first works of the man with the hat or the silhouettes were born … ghosts of my mind that I always want to be present in the reality….”
Established in Vienna in 1992, The Lomographic Society International is a globally-active organisation dedicated to analogue, experimental and creative photography. (find out more at www.lomography.com)
Copyright ⓒ Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo
In one shot a masked person, we think, appears to be watching the photographer. In the background we see an arch. An archway often symbolises a gateway where you can move from one part of your life to a new phase.
But this masked person may also symbolise what is not known, what is hidden and what are we, ironically, not seeing?
“The mask that scrutinizes you,” Giovanni explained. “Observes you and hides a mysterious face; there could be anyone behind that mask … I leave the observer the freedom to find the punctum about which Roland Barthes wrote.”
I remained intrigued by del Vescovo and his, often, cryptic answers. What is he trying to do, what are the visual messages he is attempting to convey, where is he leading us?
“My philosophy of photography is to interpret reality,” he continued. “Even if I am well aware of often producing aberrations. So, everything comes from the alienating reality of our times.”
I had to think, consider what he had just said, then stroke my chin like intelligent men do, and nod to myself. Yes…?
Copyright ⓒ Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo
This shot, for me, is the civilisation we all crave. A street cafe, a three panelled work of art, people, apparently indifferent to the photographer.
The pre COVID reality. I mean what could be better on a Friday or Saturday night than meeting up with friends, people we like, can share with and discuss the esoteric nuances of actually living the everyday. Politics : ‘No, you are right he has to resign, his position is now untenable!’ Art : ‘Oh Daido Moriyama was a genius!’ And football : ‘No, never Allesandro, he was a metre, at least a metre, if not more offside! The goal should not have been allowed!’
“The triptych of the bistro was a stroke of luck,” Giovanni says modestly. “A real street shot … I tried to capture the moment of apparent confusion; the order not wanted by the diners … I then used the colour splash technique to make it a little dreamy and unreal…”
His voice fades, a complex man – diners in search of the hubbub of splendid social chaos and chatter, that playful middle panel of black and white. Life filtering between the blues and reds and yellows of a leisurely evening meal and drinks with friends and the black and white of the mundane, the everyday grind of work and bills and scrimping and saving for the next much needed holiday. Isn’t Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo really shouting out : ‘Hey! this is my reality’?
Copyright ⓒ Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo
“That photo was born looking out from my balcony,” he tells me. “And it’s my personal surreal homage to Josef Sudek’s photography, ‘The window of my studio’; a silhouette, a ghost looking at the flowers that represent nature, then the culture that relates to its alter ego and often adversary, that is, nature.”
I don’t want to say ‘cinematic’, I don’t want to mention ‘ghost-like’ or even ‘surreal’, but you know what? They all fit. They all slot into the understated brilliance of del Vescovo’s photographs and his search for that elusive, yet real absurdity of life.
*Giovanni Antonio del Vescovo uses an analogue Cosina. For the 6×6 format, he employs an old Yashica from the sixties; for the ‘lomo’ street photos he uses a modern iPhone XR and then reworks with PicsArt and Snapseed.
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