Interview with Ferdinando Scianna: "Literature and photography contains time and memory"
Ferdinando Scianna (Bagheria, Sicily, 1943) studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Palermo. In 1963, he met writer Leonardo Sciascia, with whom he published his first photography book Feste religiose in Sicilia at age 21, earning him a Prix Nadar.
In 1967, he moved to Milan and began to work as a photographer for the magazine L’Europeo. In 1974, he moved to Paris where he remained for ten years as a special correspondent for the magazine. He became part of the Magnum-Photos Agency in 1982.
Since 1987, he has alternated between working in reportage and his work with advertising and fashion, for which he is internationally renowned.
Highlighted among his published works are: Feste religiose in Sicilia, Bari, 1965; Les Sciliens, Paris 1977; Kami, Milan 1988; Le forme del caos, Udine, 1989; Leonardo Sciascia, Milan 1989; Marpessa, Milan 1993; Altrove, reportage di moda, Milan, 1995; Viaggio a Lourdes, Milan, 1996; Dormire, forse Sognare, Udine, 1997; Jorge Luis Borges, Milan, 1999; Obiettivo ambiguo, Milan 2001; Sicilia ricordata, Milan, 2001; Quelli de Bagheria, Lugano 2002; and Mondo Bambino, Milan, 2002.
This year he is the director of Encuentros PHE: Debates on photography.
PHE- Why did you decide to dedicate your life to photography?
Ferdiando Scianna- In Sicily, when I was sixteen, which was at the end of the 1950s, I was searching for a way to escape the petit bourgeois lifestyle that I was inevitably destined for, given my family and social situation.
I found photography by chance. I took photos of the girls I liked, and they liked my photos. I discovered that photography was very easy and perfectly matched my curiosity for the world I lived in. My escape transformed into a life project.
PHE- You have published several books throughout your career. What relationship is there between photography and literature?
FS- The first book, published when I was twenty-one, was Feste Religiose in Sicilia with a memorable essay by Leonardo Sciascia, a man who is the central figure in my life. Photography has many more relationships with literature than with painting, for example. I’ve written about this a thousand times, and I have always thought this and continue to think so. Like literature, photography also contains time and memory.
PHE- You belong to the Magnum Agency, one of the most prestigious photo agencies on an international scale. What specific characteristics would you say your photography has?
FS- Magnum has been—I’m not sure how much it continues to be—a group of photographers who take photographs because they’re interested in life, the world and history, and they didn’t think (I hope the majority still doesn’t think) that the world, life and history exist for them to take photos.
PHE- You have worked as a reporter and as a fashion and publicity photographer. Which one of your projects has pleased you the most?
FS- I take photographs to find a relationship with others and with reality, and to allow reality to form a relationship with myself. I’ve always thought that photographs are fully expressed when they’re in the pages of a book. For me, photography is a narrative on myself through the things I look at and maybe see. My projects vary greatly: on Sicily, miners in Bolivia, children, women are an important part of my life, and also tiny pieces of self-portraits.
PHE- As director of the Encuentros PHE debates, what are your expectations for the event?
FS- These ‘encounters’ on literature and photography are, in my opinion, an extension of some reflection that I’ve done for many years, without stopping, with my friends. And to continue it with new friends interested in the same questions. My friendship with Antonio Ansón was born from this. That’s why it seems natural that we’ve prepared these encounters together.
PHE- What projects are you currently working on?
FS- Unfortunately (or, fortunately: I wouldn’t like to be young now), I’m sixty-five years old. I play solitaire with the cards I’ve collected over nearly half a century of photography.
Since I’ve been too lucky in my work, people ask me to explain my career. I’ve just finished a book anthology while preparing for a big exhibition, starting June 24 at the Maison Europèenne de la Photographie in Paris.
PHE- What are your plans for the future?
FS- The same ones I’ve had in the past: try not to be unhappy. But it’s becoming even more difficult
MEER OVER DE RELATIE FOTOGRAFIE EN LITERATUUR IS TE VINDEN EN TE VOLGEN OP DE REEDS IN EEN VORIG BERICHT VERMELDE INTERESSANTE WEBWERF VAN
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten