METAMORPHOSIS

ALMA BIBOLOTTI

// Alma Bibolotti is a photographer from Bari in southern Italy. Photography is an inner journey, her own way of dealing with emotions. Much of her work focuses on the language of nature, as in her series ‘Metamorphosis’, where the textures of granite rock are visually transformed into fantastical creatures.

Born in Bari, Alma’s life unfolded like a developing photograph. After graduating in Foreign Languages, she began a new chapter by moving to France. For six years, Paris and Nice became her canvas, immersing her in the vibrant culture of these European cities.

It was in the eighties that Alma first fell in love with photography. The darkroom became her sanctuary, a place where light and shadow danced on film, giving voice to her deepest emotions. With the transition to digital photography, her virtual darkroom opened up a world of possibilities, a playground for experimentation in post-processing. But for Alma, photography goes beyond technical finesse. She relishes the challenge of breaking the rules, using her lens to elevate the ordinary, to highlight the language of form and texture.

Nature, the rustling of leaves and the whisper of the wind, the simple elements, Alma believes, hold the power to unlock parallel worlds, gateways to the unconscious and the dreamlike. By capturing the external world, she seeks to make visible the introspective gaze within.

Alma has won several prestigious awards for her photography, and her work has been exhibited internationally.

“A work of art is good if it has arisen from necessity. This is the only way to judge it.”

Rainer Maria Rilke
(translated from German by John J. Richards)

What draws you to the arts?

“For me, all arts have always been very important, they are the heart of my life experience. When I started to use my first camera, I realized that I could express something which is rooted inside: since then, photography is an inner journey vital to me.”

What do you like best about this project?

“I think the objective reality conceals secrets and in my photographic practice, I aim to make visible what is hidden in the ordinary. Wind, time and water have sculpted granites: their surface, struck by light or shrouded in shadow, their sensual curves that are the subject of my visions, evoke bodies, wounds, faces, as if there was a kind of universal syntax underlying natural forms, revealing analogies between the mineral and the anthropic dimension.”

Alma’s lens is drawn to the hidden dialogues within the natural world. Her ongoing series ‘Metamorphosis’, photographs of granite rocks taken in various locations in Brittany and Sardinia, exemplifies this fascination.

These images transcend the boundaries of time and place to form a cohesive exploration that challenges traditional views of nature. Inspired by Paul Valéry’s notion of the power of the imagination, Alma invites viewers to consider these rocks not just as geological formations, but as potential catalysts for the mind to create new forms and narratives.

Click on the photos to see a larger image.