EPHḖMEROS (ANTHROPÍA)

FEDERICO DI CHIARA

// Federico is based in Carrara, Italy, a place very famous for its marble and art. Federico is himself an artist at heart, and we are pleased to present a second selection from his new Ephémeros series, “Ephémeros Anthropía”.

“What I look for in photography is myself. I would like to be able to dig deeply into my depths as much as possible to understand who I am and make my thoughts understood. My feelings, my fears and my vision of what is happening around us,” Federico says.

“The ephemeral has left its conceptual space to spread everywhere, becoming the fetish of our time: nothing elevated to everything. Ephḗmeros is an invitation to return to a critical, Intellectual gaze, capable of reading beyond aesthetics and restoring their meaning to images.”

Francesca Parravicini

What draws you to the arts?

“To me, art is a very powerful tool. It can give a voice to those who otherwise wouldn’t have one. It can stir consciences, bring down prejudices and raise awareness on issues, helping to change people’s thoughts and habits. the biggest thing, my favorite thing, is that it has enormous emotional power. Art never leaves people insensitive and makes people talk about it, it moves people because it makes them travel thousands of kilometers to be able to see an exhibition or even just a work. Art has unlimited power, very strong, and that’s what I love about it.”

What do you like best about the project you submitted?

“What I like about my project has been “playing” with the long shutter speeds of the camera and the movement of people while they do things they like to do. Sing, play, attend events, dance, pose for a photo shoot, etc. Bukowski once said: “people are the best show in the world. And you don’t even pay for the ticket.“

Ephemeros is a conceptual series, in which Federico has used long exposure times with intentional camera movement (ICM) to portray people in their environment, conveying a sense of transience.

We live in the era of social networks: new thoughts must always be born, new experiences must always be recounted, because what we did yesterday is no longer worth anything; what really matters is what you will do tomorrow,” Federico explains. “This has changed us. Each of our actions is born today with the intent to amaze, to disappear immediately afterwards. As a result our gaze – the gaze of the observer – has become fleeting, superficial. Our degree of attention is now attenuated; memories are like a thick fog, dark and overloaded. And the ability to enjoy the moment, to think about it in the future, has been canceled by the deluge of stimuli to which we are subjected. Before my photographic eye, people have become ephḗmeros, ephemeral: literally, “of just one day”. It scares me, just as cultural and emotional flattening and lack of initiative scare me. In my view, the greatest pain a human being can suffer is regret, and no one gives us back time wasted looking at memories created by others. With my photographs I try to capture intense moments, to make them stable, lasting: the opposite of the ephemeral.”

Federico has a new photobook coming out, being published by Psicografici Editore @psicograficieditoreand. We encourage you to take a look and maybe support a young artist in his passion and reserve a copy.

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