Ivan Terranova
January 2, 2021
Carlo Traini
(San Benedetto del Tronto, 1964)
I was first attracted by the Arts during military service; an attraction later developed into a curious fascination for painting and photography only after 1985.
Though that first creative impulse revealed itself to be shortlived - just a few years later, in 1997, I would stop taking photos altogether with my old camera, I still managed to bring forward and mature a personal journey and research through very few B/W rolls, some polaroids and my meeting with an iconic photographer of the 20th century.
I have no intention of merely illustrate what's out there; I instead always try to write sudden, abrupt stories with my photos and my smartphone allows me to do just that.
I call them "photoequivalences" since my pictures spawn just from what little free will you're still able to have left and the dichotomy between my inner chaos and myself - all of this without forgetting my everlasting metaphysical research.
“No image will ever tell whether us humans are tests subjects or keepers of Time, but it can lead us towards understanding
what dwells inside each of our souls."
(Carlo Traini)
Promenade
Promenade’s pictures are without a doubt part of the humanistic side of photography.
In Promenade, people are not merely treated as objects in a scene; conversely, my pictures are taken when I feel these subjects become their most natural selves, a moment usually deemed not worthy of attention by most.
I’m catching the instant in which they’re contemplating something, dealing with their anxieties or sharing their joy, feeling some kind of burden for being/not being where they want, or just wanting to be somebody or somewhere else. All subjects are thinking about hope, fear, an illness, some relative of theirs who lives far away. In that sense, I am there with them, searching for those moments.
A typical subject for me is something extraordinarily normal living their daily routine, something only a few people want to (or even have time to) observe: that’s why each photo is dedicated to the subject represented in it. This lyricism is also further explored with a message directed to all of Promenade’s protagonists. These pictures unwillingly take part of demonstrating their impossibility of truly being alone – they testify that one person has walked alongside them, and captured their little glimpse of life, forever. They are links of a chain I drag with me, pearls of an intriguing necklace I wear everytime I see, recognize, and finally shoot, celebrating the magnitude and diversity of the human emotion.
All my inspirations stem from my care for mankind, and the inherent complexity of its nature. These photos are meant to fix one’s memory on imperceptible things, in order to make them survive the indifference of time, flattener of all emotions.
