Interview about Fireberg Environment Photographic Project, winner of the A' Photography and Photo Manipulation Design Award 2023
The artist's project concerns a theme today at the center of global attention both at an institutional and population level: the environment. In these images the primary element is the ice and its melting. The artist created it through the chromatic inversion from positive to negative, which coincides with the concept of change, representing an opposite reality: the ice becomes fire, the cracks become a volcano. A new style that tells the problem by analyzing the Perito Moreno Glacier.
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View Design DetailsThe Perito Moreno Glacier was an overwhelming emotion that immediately set my creative thinking in motion.I wanted to photograph it in a different way, with an environmental approach — a project I had been thinking about for a long time.The words hot, cold, the verbs to melt, to burn kept spinning quickly in my head. Having worked for years in the printing process, when I saw up close that the cracks of the Perito Moreno were blue, I thought that in the negative their complementary color would be yellow-orange.
Beauty is one of my points of reference: a photo must be beautiful (subjectively, of course), especially when it is meant to represent something ugly. Those who are drawn to a photograph also enter it on an emotional level, and for me it’s important that they ask themselves a question. Asking questions even before giving answers opens the mind — it allows you to go beyond what you see.Anyone who looks at the photo FireBerg Series Cold 23 Environment and wonders if it depicts a volcano, then realizes it doesn’t, and finally discovers that it’s a glacier — I’m sure that, over time, in the time of reflection, they will understand that it represents the melting of the glacier, and that this process is one of the effects of climate change.
During exhibitions in different places around the world, the audience has always been amazed by my message conveyed through the negative inversion of the Perito Moreno’s cracks.Astonishment itself is not only a visual effect, but above all an inner one — that effect which leads the viewer to think beyond what they see, to feel, and to imagine what I am “saying” through the images.I believe that, up to now, everyone (at least in my presence) has understood that we have a duty toward the planet we inhabit.
I have been to the Perito Moreno Glacier twice.The first time, I didn’t have much time to realize everything I had in mind, but I still worked a lot on the details.The second time, however, for safety reasons, I was required to follow the designated path without stepping off the track. This immediately put me in a very standard position — not what I was looking for. On the other hand, it pushed me to take greater risks, because I knew that this project, which tells the story of such a significant phase of this moment, had sharpened my determination as an artist.
Setting up an exhibition is always a delicate moment.The printing of an image on a chosen medium is a decisive choice for the impact it will have on the audience.The first printing test I did was in Buenos Aires, where I live when I’m not in Rome. I went to a professional print lab (Buenos Aires Color) and asked to do several tests on aluminum and glossy paper.They suggested using the type of paper generally employed for direct printing from slides (E6). However, here in Italy — and I believe in Europe as well — that kind of paper has a cool tone. In any case, I took their suggestion into consideration, and it turned out to be a revelation!In fact, in Latin America, the same type of paper (E6) has a warm tone — exactly what I needed to emphasize my FireBerg project.
Beauty, wonder, and mystery have accompanied me since I created the FireBerg project.The inversion from positive to negative perfectly connects photography to the concept it expresses — in this case, cold–hot, blue–orange, glacier–volcano.I immediately found this duality very powerful, a true fusion between photography and concept. When you find the right key to convey a strong and direct message, it’s important to nurture it and bring it into other projects as well.
I believe that photography — and images in general — should be present more often when they carry an important message, such as that of climate change.I would love to explore it in every possible way, not only through exhibitions but also by bringing it into homes and into the streets. For example, I would love it if, during events dedicated to the Earth, the FireBerg photographs were printed on all the shop shutters.Or to print them on fabrics — like sheets or curtains — on furniture, and alongside them create other accessories with matching details.I’ve imagined a large hotel entirely dedicated to environmental issues, where on each floor there would be one of my projects on the environment, expressed in every possible form.
The A’ Design Award has been a great recognition for me — not only for the award itself, but above all because its structure is truly innovative in every respect.The support it offers helps an artist grow their reputation, and with it, their ideas and message.The intense and widespread activity — its distribution, communication, and attention to the artist — undoubtedly helps to make one’s work better known and strengthens its underlying message, which in my case specifically concerns the environment.There are other projects, still works in progress, connected to this theme that I intend to submit to upcoming competitions (one has already been presented and awarded), with the aim of broadening the perspective on this issue as much as possible.
This project was born during a journey to the Perito Moreno Glacier.In a short time, I managed to find a surreal way to narrate environmental decay — through the beauty of an image that, at first glance, evokes exactly the opposite.I believe that the audience needs an aesthetic approach to truly understand, deep down, how essential even their smallest action can be.
FireBerg was the first in a series of environmental projects, which fall under the broader concept of Mother&Land.I have often used the negative, but not in all projects: I believe that color inversion can, in a certain way, seem aggressive when its deeper message is revealed. That’s why sometimes I have left the positive image, equally beautiful, as a transition from what exists to what might no longer exist.Thinking about the end of Planet Earth is something greater than ourselves. Being aware of it, and doing something — each of us playing our part — is a duty we must adhere to if we want to continue living here.
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