The simple things are the most beautiful, we might tell ourselves as we open this book. Or perhaps we remain puzzled by what we see.
In the work “The Pictures Included in this Envelope” (Kehrer), Andrea Ferrari presents a series of objects and documents that once belonged to Giulia Carrobio, a pharmacist and amateur photographer living in Milan.
We can look among these notebooks, drawings, letters, placemats, papers, photographs and stamps for some chronological or alphabetical theme, but the aesthetics are the most striking aspect of the work.
Everyday objects are photographed like documents, but no less beautifully arranged. Sometimes one would like to see them considered as works of art with a caption at the bottom of each page detailing the material, format and so on. This set of objects comes to seem like a precious collection that arouses one’s curiosity. Some of the things photographed are easy to identify, others are less “legible.” We ask ourselves how big they are and what they might be used for. Then we begin to perceive their emotional value.
And who exactly put this book together? Was it Giulia C., the collector, who skillfully kept all this together? Or was it Andrea Ferrari, the artist, who gave it form? Or is it readers like us, who come up with the stories ourselves?
Laura Gasparini, the author of one of the essays (the other is Quentin Bajac), explains: “The apartment is the space for her solitary life. Any object that passed into her life immediately became part of her emotional world. (…) Walking into Giulia’s flat, Andrea Ferrari found himself plunged into her world. He opened drawers and boxes, discovering her journals where he found confirmation that Giulia wanted to leave a trace of herself.”
Andrea Ferrari (b. 1970) studied philosophy and is a self-taught photographer. “The Pictures Included in this Envelope” is his first major publication. The project, selected for the European Publishers Award and the Kassel Dummy Award in 2013, was published in a first edition of 1,000 copies by Kehrer Verlag in November 2013.
Andrea Ferrari « The pictures included in this envelope »
Essays by Quentin Bajac, Laura Gasparini
Hardcover 21 x 27 cm, 106 pages and 16 pages text leaflet, 106 color ills.
English/French
ISBN 978-3-86828-469-0
http://www.kehrerverlag.com
