spaceport bali

city worlds

The photo art series “City Worlds” results from a decade of travels through various world cities. Instead of taking photos intended to represent the city as such, Marincolo approached these cities as their own worlds of street scenes, people, architecture, and moods. He directs our attention to much more abstract features of these worlds, proving that photography can act like an x-ray through the deep structure of reality, going way beyond the surface.

In the photo “The Menace” we see the towers of the World Trade Center, lurking behind an old brickstone building. Like so many other old buildings, it may have been maliciously burned down as a result of ruthless real estate speculations driven by the greed of a cold and inhumane capitalist system, a system symbolized by the huge steel towers of the World Trade Center. Ironically, history has shown that the system itself and its most infamous symbols were in danger, too.

In some instances, Marincolo used classical camera effects such as double exposure or a zoom shift during the exposure to reinforce the impression or mood of a situation.The double exposure of the red brick houses in downtown Manhattan reinforces a Kafkaesque impression of anonymity, and the zoom shift during the exposure of the rainy beach of Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro in “Ipanema Beach II” gives the photo the look of an impressionist painting.

Many photos convey a deeper meaning simply because of their thoughtful composition: the old lady in ‘”Beauty” walks by a huge poster of a smiling young woman representing an ideal of beauty omnipresent in Rio de Janeiro. But the wrinkles on the surface of the placard and the decaying wall mark a stark contrast to this ideal.

In another photo from the Rio series, the Jesus statue on the Corcovado seen through TV antennas on the roofs displays the eminent influence of Catholicism in Brazil from a critical angle, showing a vain Jesus spreading his arms like a mass media star.

 

barcelunatic

Open Series, 2009-

single art