This project is about an invisible light, from which I was often able to conjure up a series of images – let’s call them worlds – where you could hear a multitude of voices. Voices too loud to hold in the mind and too volatile to grasp. Voices that could not simply be silenced. Like demons, they belonged nowhere and spoke of the unknown.
Imagine that you have never known the color of the sky, or that you have never seen trees and light. Allow these worlds to pass unconsciously through your eyes.
Giovanni C. Lorusso
The VOCI (VOICE) project is made up of 153 images taken between Australia, France, Italy, Oman and South Africa between 2018 and 2020.
Photographs were captured on Ilford HP5 400 and Foma 400 BW film, then printed on Foma 133 MG Classic gelatin silver paper.
The colors on these BW media were achieved by experimenting with different processes including combining lith chemicals mixed with other household products over a 2 week period. Over 250 prints were made, of which nearly 100 were lost due to extreme development times and bath shutdowns that damaged the gelatin layer irreversibly.
The majority of the prints were exposed to daylight (lith requires long exposure times) and unfixed to retain richness of color. For this reason, they can no longer be exposed to light and are only visible through their digital reproduction. The originals can be viewed under non-harmful light, in a darkroom available during the event.
All the photographs are collected in the book VOCI, printed on Munken Pure 160gsm paper bound by hand with Japanese stitching in Paris, in 2021. This book, the only copy available, will be exhibited.
A small selection of images is available in a 28-page hand-bound book, 60 copies printed, for purchase during the event.
In addition, the work includes a 4-minute video projection presenting a selection of photographs and summarizes the work with light and colors that characterize the project.
Giovanni C. Lorusso is a filmmaker and photographer with a background in Literature (BA Arts, Rome 2003 – MA Lit, Rome 2005), Cinema (Film diploma, Sydney 2006) and Philosophy (MA Phil, London 2009) and 13 years of professional experience as director of photography for productions in Asia, Oceania, Africa, Middle East and recently in Europe (with works premiered in Venice, Berlin, Rotterdam).
His most recent research spans between photography and videography, with the self-publication of 3 books in 2021: The Limits of Rupture, on the aftermath of the August 2020 explosion in Beirut, Lebanon
VOCI, experimental analogue work
Keep Fire Burning, photographic work initially produced during his first trip to Johannesburg in 2018 and the production of 3 feature films:
AMERICANS ! (Johannesburg, SA) (col. 62’) Song of All Ends (Beirut, Lebanon) (BW / col. 93’) MORIAH (Banjul, Gambia) (col. 72’)
Giovanni C. Lorusso : Voci
March 21 – April 30, 2023
Opening: March 23, 6-10 p.m.
Galerie Adrian Bondy
221 Rue Saint-Jacques
75005, Paris, France
www.mindseye.fr
