EPHEMEROS

FEDERICO DI CHIARA

// Federico was born in Carrara, Italy. A professional chef, he also has a deep passion for art, having grown up in a city that attracts artists from all over the world, so Federico has been exposed to this ambiente all his life. His own art is expressed through photography. He shared his conceptual series “Ephemeros”, which is about the fragility of our lives and the spaces around us.

In Carrara, with its Academy of Fine Arts and, above all, its iconic marble, which has been used from Roman times to create statues, temples and majestic villas with monumental columns, art is ubiquitous.

Federico says, “Three years ago I took a camera in my hand for the first time in my life, and it was love at first sight. Two years ago I started making sets “designed” to try to express what I feel.”

“Do not go to my grave.
Mary knows, I am not there.
Look for me in between pages
and on people’s lips.
Do not go to my old school.
Do not go to my old house —
I am not in any of those places.
Look for me in your hearts
and greet me there.”

Kamand Kojouri

What draws you to the arts?

“Since I was a child I have been attracted to art. I am attracted to the strength it has and can transmit. I happened to feel inert, helpless, in front of a work of art. The sensations, the emotions that a work can convey are unrepeatable, intimate and not easy to find in everyday life. This is what attracts me to art and that, in my own way, I would like to be able to convey.”

What do you like best about the project you submitted?

“What I like most is being able to play with the camera, the long exposure times, the lens and the movement, the “blur” to give a sense of ephemerality to the buildings of my city.”

Ephemeros is a conceptual series, in which Federico has used long exposure times with intentional camera movement (ICM) in urban spaces to convey a sense of impermancence. Federico´s project is a response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the continuous rise of far-right governments in Europe, with their crushing and pillaging of all that is different, “foreign”.

“These events have unleashed in me the urgency to represent my thoughts through photography. These facts make me reflect and create in me a sense of powerlessness and strong uncertainty. The war images of the various Ukrainian cities, with their buildings destroyed, dismembered, have pushed me to think about what my reaction would be, what my emotions would be if I were to undergo all this. The certainties that accompany us throughout our life can collapse in an instant, like the buildings, the monuments, the houses bombed just out of greed and the desire for power of a few,” says Federico. “”What until yesterday was certain, familiar, taken for granted may no longer exist. our certainties, at this point, can become ephemeral (ephḗmeros) and vanish forever. In history everything can repeat itself and we rarely learn from the past, a match thrown on the pile of repressed hatred is enough to unleash other clashes, to destroy my buildings, my beliefs. My works speaks of the fear that the places we recognize as ours may fall and become ephemeral in front of the lens of my camera. Mine is an outcry, because things can change and we are the ones who create the basis for the change.”

We cry with you, Federico.

Click on the photos to see a larger image. Some images may be cropped for layout.