ITALIANA - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

AIC
PAOLA ??
BARBAGLIA
MAN RAY
Meret Oppenheim
(1929)
...vide Dio che la luce era buona,
e la divise dalle tenebre..."
"And, God saw the light, that is was good: and God divided the light from
the darkness... "
(Genesis I, 3-4)
"Light of my life, I'm immensely illumined, to bring the most deeply
hiddenfeelings to light, he saw the light, the flame in him died"; and as a
euphemism for birth and death, "Dixitque Deus: Fiat Lux. Et facta est
lux... "
Even from the beginning of the Old Testament, the light and its
components (colours), and its negation (shadow), has always functioned
as inspiration, subject and metaphor in various forms of artistic, poetic
and literary expression.
For example, entering a Dantean dark wood, indicates a fear of the
unconscious-darkness, as opposed to feeling secure in the light of rational
consciousness.
Words become symbols, rather than merely being significant in
themselves, in "The Shadow-line" and "Heart of Darkness" by Conrad, in
which the words "shadow" and "darkness" symbolize a journey back to
man's very origins — Kurtz in "Heart of Darkness" is a negative version of
Prometheus, who has put out the fire and returned to the blackness (AA
Rosa); this same symbolism is expressed magnificently, both
conceptually and photographically, in "Apocalypse Now", when Marlow
embarks cm the journey back to his origins, and the hot, vibrant light of
day gives way to the dark jungle, and nights filled with danger.
Pasolini treated the transition from words to images (cinema) as a
virgin area where he constantly researched expressive forms which
manifested themselves, in the photography of many of his films, in the
(Genesi I, 3-4)
Luce dei miei occhi, m'illumino
d'immenso, portare alla luce le
più recondite emozioni, ha visto
la luce, si è spento, come
eufemismo ad indicare la nascita
e la morte, Dixitque Deus: Fiat
Lux. Et Facta est lux fin dalle
pagine dell'Antico Testamento, la
luce con i suoi componenti
(colori) e la sua negazione
(ombra) è sempre stata essa
stessa soggetto, metafora,
ispirazione di varie espressioni
artistiche, poetiche e letterarie.
Come ad esempio l'addentrarsi
nella selva oscura dantesca
evidenzia il timore verso
l'inconscio-oscurità rispetto alla
luce della conoscenza razionale.
Parole come simboli più che
significanti in se, in "Linea
d'ombra" e "Cuore di tenebra" di
Conrad, shadow e darkness,
rappresentano simbolicamente
un viaggio alle radici dell'essere
all'origine di noi stessi — il Kurtz
di "Cuore di tenebra è una
specie di Prometeo alla rovescia
che ha spento il fuoco ed è
rientrato nella nera tenebra" (A.
A. Rosa) questa simbologia è
stata splendidamente
rappresentata, da un punto di
vista ideologico e fotografico in
Apocalypse Now, dove mentre
Marlow si addentra nel viaggio
verso la conoscenza delle
proprie radici, la luce calda e
baluginante del giorno lascia
light and shadow contrast of black and white, where the light itself
expresses the anguish, alienation and desolation experienced by the
human soul.
Man Ray made the transition from painting to photography:
"Photography is the quickest way I have found of expressing myself; in a
few seconds, I am able to create what would take me six months to express
in painting; it is the light that does the work, not me".
Perhaps it is not by mere chance that Jungian psychology uses the term
"shadow" as a metaphor for our anxieties and all the things we are
unable to accept, the entire corpus, in fact, that a personality in conflict
refuses to consider rationally or consciously analyse, actually keeping
them in "shadow"; according to Jung, the task of psychoanalysis is to
bring to "light" the problems which can tear a human soul to pieces.
Shadow, therefore, as darkness, and the negation of life; and light, as the
language of love. Georgia O'Keefe's husband was a great photographer,
and when speaking of his death, she said: "Steigliz was like the sun to
me, and the only way I could bring him back was to paint images that
were so filled with light, thay chased out darkness that had invaded my
soul".
Reading, itself, is a process by which we conjure up images from words.
Calvino define the characters in Cavalcanti's poems as being like "sighs,
brilliant rays, images created with light", using the intangibility of the
light particles to define the ethereal quality of the poet's verse.
And it is one again Calvino, who maintains that Leopardi has worked
the miracle of fining down language to the point that it is as pure as
moonlight; and, even though the moon appears in many of his poems but
in few verses, they suffice to communicate all the "colours" of her light, or
the shadow cast by her absence.