Labyrinth is a very personal project I developed in 2009. I wanted it to represent the human mind in form of place where to get lost, or found for that matters.

Through this project I tried to explore the principles of the reality by transcending its limits of space and time. It questions what is real and what is just trapped in the tight maze of our thoughts, just like Nikki Grace or the tormented writer of room 237.

Labyrinth was printed on matt paper 30''X40'' and exhibited in June 2009 at the T1 Gallery of the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, London, and in September of the same year at the Palazzo del Casinò in Venice, during the 66th International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art.

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Labyrinth - England - March-May 2009
Digital prints on matt paper - Mind landscapes
© Francesco Mancusi

Apart from the clear reference to Stanley Kubrick's Shining, another great icon in filmography inspired me to the realization of this work: Inland Empire, by David Lynch. The two movies interpret the meaning of craziness by giving it a dimensional space, and a visual representation.

Movies and photography have always gone very close together, if only for technical reasons. Here, maybe, for conceptual ones too.

" Although the dream is a very strange phenomenon and an inexplicable mystery, far more inexplicable is the mystery and aspect our minds confer on certain objects and aspects of life” - Giorgio de Chirico

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There were wonderful days in Barcelona and Tarrega, a small pueblo in the middle of Catalunya, not far from Lleida. The town was ready to start with a street theatre festival with artists coming from all over.

During those few days I took some shots at the places, trying to emphasize the heat (yes, even in September) with a technique that has been quite popular lately in digital photography: slight overexposure. Although this is formerly wrong, since the digital shots are taken with positive light and are due to "burn" pixels if you overexpose too much, the resulting effect is quite interesting. Some more details can be found here.

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Catalunya Heat - Spain - September 2011
Digital Shots - City landscapes
© Francesco Mancusi

One of the authors that use this technique quite a lot is the American photographer William Rugen. William is based in Seattle but travels a lot around US. He his active on social networks mainly through flickr and facebook. He also travelled around Italy and it is possible to see some of his shots on his site.

In his work called Western Dioramas he merges symmetry and style into something surely pleasant and interesting. Although I found some of his work a bit didactic, I think he has a very nice style that could possibly become more personal in the future.

"Y si un abrigo no tengo yo, aunque haga frio, siento calor." - Peret 

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The images in this post were taken in a wonderful place I happened to go to during this summer: the beautiful Cima D'Asta in the Dolomites, North Italy. On the summit of that mountain, at 2500 meters amsl, there is a natural lake with a spring water: a great prize for those who walked all the way up there.

Although Dolomites are worldwide famous for their colors, I decided to capture their strength by shooting them in black and white. I chose this style to highlight the details of the rocks along the way, also with the use of an highly contrasted effect. 

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Cima D'Asta - Dolomites - August 2011
Digital Shots - Black and White Landscapes
© Francesco Mancusi

The author related to this post is an icon in the world of photography: Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams is an American landscape photographer and environmentalist who shot most of his pictures in the Yosemite Nation Park, in California, with a spectacular collection of images.

During his long career he contributed to improve the photographic technique by developing the Zone System, a method to determine proper exposure for each of the zones of the frame and adjust the contrast of final print in the darkroom. This method was a revolution in the world of traditional photography and allowed to take incredible images with a stunning final effect.

Moreover, Ansel Adams founded with Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston the Group f/64 that takes his name from the smallest aperture of the camera lens, which gives highly sharp images and extremely long depth of field.

"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships." - Ansel Adams

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Ray of light is one of my favorite projects. I shot it in between March and June of 2009, in London, taking just the part of the city I love most: the life spent at the park, with those long windy sundays. It is intended to "capture life under its sky", framing Londoners where they feel the most free.

These scenes were shot in Hampstead Heat and Primrose Hill, two beautiful and inspiring areas in north London, just above Rengent's Park. With its light shades, this project contrasts with another one I shot at nights and showing the dark, fake, side of the same city. 

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Ray of light - London - March - June 2009
Digital Shots - Everyday life
© Francesco Mancusi

One of the sources of inspiration to this post is the italian photo-reporter Francesco Nonino, and particularly to his work named "athmospheres", which was released in September 2005. Francesco Nonino was born in Udine in 1960. During his career he had the chance to work with world-famous artists such as Annie Leibovitz and his photographs are exhibited in Rome, New York and Paris and, at the moment, also at the 54° Venice Biennal at the Italian pavillon. 

During the development of this project, however, I have also taken inspiration from another artist: the anglo-jamaican writer Zadie Smith Born in 1975 in London. The way she describes London in her books, expecially "white teeth", is simply faboulous. here's a description of Hemptead Heat she wrote in "on beauty".

"[Hampstead Heath] has a shade of green for every possible felicitation of light; that paints itself in russets and ambers in the autumn, canary-yellow in the splashy spring; with tickling bush grass to hide teenage lovers and joint smokers, broad oaks for brave men to kiss against,...Hampstead Heath! Glory of London! Where Keats walked and Jarman fucked, where Orwell exercised his weakened lungs and Constable never failed to find something holy." - Zadie Smith

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Berlin's a great city, full of life and arts and music... One of the things that most surprised me is that you can never know what you'll find around the next corner. Few weeks ago I was lucky enough to turn the right one and to find the 48 hours Neukölln Fest, a two days festival of arts taking place few hundred meters south of Kreuzberg.

The scenes were great, and I came out with a small reportage on the event. Hope you like that!

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Kunst und Kultur Fest - Berlin - June 2011
Digital Shots - Night shots
© Francesco Mancusi

The author I would like to talk about and related to this post is the freelance photo-reporter Malte Jäjer, born in Scheswig, Germany, in 1977. Malte Jäger was photographically raised in Hamburg, one of the most active cities in Europe in terms of photography.

He is the winner of the second prize in the Daily Life section of the Wordpress Photo of this year with a work on couch surfing. This work is particularly well done and captures a slice of the contemporary life that is usually hidden, almost "underground". This picture is great under many aspects and it fully represents the spirit of photojournalism since it tells a complete, detailed story, in just one shot. 

"Couchsurfin' Around the World. Couchsurfers hang out at the apartment of their host, ‘Naked Paul', in Brooklyn, New York. Couchsurfers meet through websites that put travelers, or couchsurfers, in touch with potential hosts from around the world. No money is exchanged for overnight stays. The aim of such hospitality websites is to promote cultural exchange and to offer an alternative travel experience to staying in hotels. "

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I did not know what to expect from California, or from US for that matter... Let's just say, living aside the many good or bad useless stereotypes about this country, that I was truly impressed. It's almost like the difference between watching a movie and meeting the cast for real. When you walk around, you are somehow already familiar with the scenes and you unconsciously know what to expect them to be like... but it's different because you are inside them. Weird sensation.

This project was shot in January 2010, between San José and San Francisco. It is intended to capture the idea of common every-day scenes from a place that is at the same time new and know.

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California - San Francisco / San Jose 2010
Digital Shots - Photography on the road
© Francesco Mancusi

The author I took inspiration from is the American photographer Stephen Shore, born in 1947. His most important works called "Uncommon Places" and "American Surfaces" changed the way we think of contemporary photography, revealing an exceptional and unexpected beauty in banality and everyday life. Shore's was strongly influenced by the FSA photography group artists, such as Walker Evans, and like them dedicated most of his professional career taking "on the road" pictures around North America.

Advancing more recent genres, the scenes he represents are at the same time "common" and extraordinary, monumental. He is also one of the first art photographers to work in colour, capturing the mild blues of the sky, the mustard yellows and the avocado greens in an unusual and effective chromatic combination. You can have a look at some of his shots on the website of the New Yorks's 303 gallery or checking out these books on amazon or phaidon

"I discovered that this camera was the technical means in photography of communicating what the world looks like in a state of heightened awareness. And it’s that awareness of really looking at the everyday world with clear and focused attention that I’m interested in." - Stephen Shore

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I chose "INSOMNIA", a project I developed back in London, to introduce you to my new photo-blog. This is a very personal project, probably telling just a little about who I am, but expressing one of the main points I would like to make through this blog.

Photographs are reflections of a moment. I would not pretend them (mine or others') to be either totally true or false, nor universal or unique. They just tell a story, that's it! They could be interesting, passionate, scary or even boring, and we feel them in different ways depending on our tastes or mood just as they were a book or a movie.

This is the first one... have a look and see what this story means to you.

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Insomnia - London 2007
Digital Shots - Film Stills
© Francesco Mancusi

The images in the set are film still portraits capturing myself in the apartment I was living in during my stay in London, few year ago. This project is inspired by Jeff Wall's project shot in 1994 and called the same way. Jeff Wall is a Canadian artist and photographer. With his work he connected film and literature to art in a new style defined as "cinematographic photography", which he distinguished from "documentary photography". For a more extended biography, click here.

"The set for this work is an exact replica of the kitchen in Wall’s studio. The man seemingly suffering from a nightmarish episode of insomnia is an actor. The claustrophobic atmosphere is emphasised by the awkward positioning of the furniture – tables and chairs are placed at angles that defeat their function, and appear to block the fridge and cooker from opening. The door and cupboard, half ajar, could be read as metaphors for the mind, in its struggle to find an escape into sleep." [from Tate Modern, London, 1994]

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