Portraits 

The phrase that stands out above is very striking and would also be very poetic if it were true, but in my smallness I want to refute in the most absolute way these words of the great Cicerone !

Often we recit like a mantra that the face is the autobiography of a person, that a face tells, each wrinkle is a story, that the eyes reveal the soul, and many trite and repeated phrases of this tone. I think instead that the human face is one of the greatest mysteries of the universe, a fascinating and intriguing mystery, of course, but an unfathomable mystery, a deep well in which an abyss is hidden.

Behind a glance, a universe hides, or rather many universes, which we will never know, and perhaps not even those who flaunt it know in depth what gravitational forces move it.

The human face is a marvelous and fascinating subject, and probably his being a mystery, his unfathomable being, increases his charm in out of all proportion, it is a charm that reminds a bit of gambling, almost a Russian roulette: you never know what is hiding behind a captivating gaze or a seductive smile: you too will have seen angelic and welcoming faces, which seem to open the doors of paradise, but if you get too close you discover how often angels are actually devils in disguise, and you risk to find yourself into the magma of hell at the end !

"The face is the theater of man"

The faces, the features, the shapes, the looks, the smiles are beautiful, and often then small details increase their charm, like a small mole or a scar. As Picasso wrote, what is the thing most attractive in a woman? The defect ! That small detail that perhaps should not be there, but if it were not there, it would result in a cold and banal perfection, instead it is precisely that imperfect detail that attracts attention and makes human perfection human, and I fully agree with this vision, it's really true, think about it !

They enchant some faces, they capture us with a force that could be defined as magical: some looks seem so profound to us, some smiles so disarming, but like everything beautiful in this land, it is often at the same time dangerous, insidious, deceptive. This is certainly an our problem, it is certainly our propensity to project our expectations and our dreams outwards, and so we only see what we would like to see, we deceive ourselves !

If you get closer, if you explore them, if you investigate, the faces make you understand an important thing: that is all illusion, projection, self-deception, often mathematically proportional to their beauty! It is a real Russian roulette, complete with an adrenaline rush, and maybe you don't lose your life, but the soul certainly may be !

Portrait photography is an exorcism in this sense, it is a protection: through an aesthetic research, you create a fetish, you make the danger of projection harmless, you create a sort of voodoo doll, for the good though, where instead of sticking pins to provoke of evil, you stick dreams and hopes, desires and fantasies, without the risk of hurting yourself too much, because you know however that it is only a game, only an image. In this way, photography becomes a protective screen that allows you to approach the fire without burning yourself.

Of all this speech, of course the opposite is also true, and it is this ambivalence that creates mystery and charm!

Sometimes a mask is truer than a face!

But here we enter a much wider and deeper territory, that which concerns our identity. Every day our face makes tacit agreements with all the other faces with which we enter into a relationship, willy-nilly. Over time all this creates a plot, more or less aware, of customs and expectations, which constitute precisely our identity, something that probably is not always the result of our decisions or will, and these relations end up constituting a net, a cage, in which we remain entangled. A role that we loaded on the back and that we find ourselves having to play, carrying it around like a heavy stone during our days.

In the end we risk becoming what others think we are! We are no longer ourselves, but the projection of others. This may not be good or bad, but it is certainly not our essence.

For these reasons a mask, a veil, a pseudonym, can be liberating and show deeper truths than a "real" face, yes because the masks are not only those made of plastic, even a dazzling smile or a winking look can be a formidable mask.

Playing in hiding, playing with roles and identities, is a good gym for training in freedom, and every now and then silently disappearing from the scene to be alone with yourself can be therapeutic !

The portrait is a beautiful art form, but it is scenography! It is simplistic to think that a photograph can capture the personality of an individual, it would be presumptuous for photography, and reductive for the person portrayed! Life is a kaleidoscope in perpetual becoming, and cannot be represented in the fixity of a gaze.

I see the portrait as a symbol, a crucible where to condense messages, feelings, ideals, canons and styles, for this reason in a portrait more than the subject, it is the photographer himself to be represented, the portrait photography conveys emotions and non-identity ! The personality of the photographer is revealed, with the complicity of the subject !