Blend History and Myth

Photo Essays

Atmospheric Photographs that Blend History and Myth

• by Julia Friedman on August 26, 2015
• 
  

Paolo Morello, from the series ‘Petra’ (2012)

Italian photographer and photographic historian Paolo Morello infuses his images with lore. The subjects in his exhibition Upon Light, at St. Petersburg’s ROSPHOTO, include ancient trees and famous ruins that exist across vast planes of time; history is woven into each photograph.

For example, Morello’s series Petra captures the ancient, rose-colored rock city in black and white. This color-free approach removes any identifiable markers of the modern era, thereby alluding to a history of Western exploration and colonialism. Petra, located in present-day Jordan, was populated as far back as the prehistoric era. It later became the capital city of the Nabatean kingdom, then a Hellenistic and Roman trading nexus. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city boasts an advanced water system and temples from traditions as diverse as the breadth of its inhabitants.

But Morello’s photos, filled with misty light, capture something more elusive than Petra’s carved stone. They subtly contribute to the aura of the place, adding one more romanticized, imprecise visual record. Previously, Petra has been primarily photographed through the lens of exploration, colonialism, or architectural interest; however, Morello does not grapple with this context of documentation. His photos are more in the vein of prose, poetry, painting, and sculpture, capturing the place through a hazy filter of mystery and myth.

Paolo Morello, from the series ‘Petra’ (2012)

Paolo Morello, from the series ‘Blown’ (2014)

Paolo Morello, from the series ‘The Tale of the Banyan Tree’ (2015)

Paolo Morello, from the series ‘Blown’ (2014)

Paolo Morello: Upon Light continues at ROSPHOTO (Bolshaya Morskaya ul., 35, St. Petersburg, Russia) through August 30.

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Upon Light - Paolo Morello 

When:

10.07.2015 - 30.08.2015 

Where:

Saint-Petersburg

Category:

Exhibitions

Personal exhibition of contemporary Italian photographer

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The State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO
with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
presents the exhibition
Paolo Morello. Upon Light

10.07 – 30.08.2015
Opening: July 9, 6 p.m.
The Exhibition Hall of the Main Building, 2nd Floor
After the exhibition opening at 6:30 p.m. artist talk with Paolo Morello will start in ROSPHOTO's conference hall.

The State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO presents a solo exhibition Upon Light by a contemporary Italian photographer Paolo Morello. The exhibition gathers together works from different series, realized over the past ten years. Greek myths, ancient tales, archaeological sites of the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, and the never ending work of interpretation are the themes upon which photographic work of Paolo Morello is grounded. Many ancient myths show a great modernity and some seem to allude to present circumstances.

The author believes that Sicily is still the land inhabited by the ancient Greeks. Series A Journey to Sicily is devoted to famous Mediterranean island, the land of the Cyclops, where Odysseus blinded the giant Polyphemus during his journey back home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. The series entitled Aphrodite’s Nostalgia takes as well its origins from an ancient myth, that of the goddess of love, and of her symbol, the shell. The shell was neither a symbol of her beauty, nor of her femininity, rather of her birth.

In the series entitled In the Beginning Morello strove to compare some myths of creation, such as Hesiod’s Theogony and the Book of Genesis. He took from these myths some motifs, among them the ‘chaos’ – the primordial abyss – the Eden – the paradisiacal garden – the life which takes shape from the inchoate mud, the divine breath – the ‘alitus’ – and finally the coming to the surface of the Earth from the depths of the Ocean. Cosmogoniс myths were conceived as metaphors of the progressive widening of the consciousness. Photography too is an exercise of progressive understanding and appropriation within the boundaries of the knowledge. In Sanskrit, the verbs to see and to know have the same root: ‘vidya.’ 

      

A number of photographs is devoted to Petra, the ancient Nabatean capital, now in Jordan. Despite the worldwide fame of its rose-reddish sandstone, Morello decided to photograph its tombs and monuments in black and white in order to keep off the way it is usually represented in touristic postcards. The uniqueness of that site is primarily due to the relationship between nature, rocks and architecture. Photographer was inspired by the journals and the sketchbooks made by the Europeans who adventurously rediscovered Petra at the beginning of the 19^th century, after many centuries of oblivion.

The Tale of the Banyan Tree is dedicated to inextricable connection between the Sky and the Earth. In Sanskrit, the Banyan tree is called Nyagrodha, which means ‘that which grows downwards’. What makes it so monumental and moving is the framework of aerial roots, which, reaching the ground, become ancillary trunks, and help to support the weight of the foliage. If one considers the symbolical value of its rooting, one will discover in it the will to connect the top with the bottom. Leaves and roots depend on each other: without the latter, the former would die, and vice versa.

Photographic historian, photographer, publisher, collector, and gallerist, Paolo Morello studied at the University Iuav of Venice, the Scuola Normale in Pisa and St John’s College in Oxford. From 1998 onward, he pursued and developed his career as a photographic historian. He taught Photography and History of Photography at the universities of Palermo, Bologna, Brescia, Verona, at the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, and others. Paolo Morello is the author of many seminal works on the history of photography in Italy. From 2001 to 2010 he was contributing editor of the magazine History of Photography, and from 1999 to 2011 he directed the Istituto Superiore per la Storia della Fotografia. In 2011, he founded Glint, a publishing company based in London, and in 2012 he founded Studio, a photographic gallery in Palermo.

Venue:

Front building exhibition hall 2nd floor

Street:

Bol. Morskaya, 35

City:

Saint-Petersburg