The PhotoPerformer in Action

Here, a series of actions performed for the camera with the intentions to visualise some philosophical thoughts and stimulate the viewer imagination and interpretation.

These actions/images are presented individually or as an ongoing series of single mounted photographs.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

as a hunter of ghostly images.

(Joshua Tree 2014)

Picture taken by Maria Sideri under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

manifesting the self through a symbolic pose of exchange.

(New York 2015)

Picture taken using a timer function.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

as an anthropologist documenting their own life as a case study for the others.

(Shillong 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

carrying the weight of their responsibility to communicate with and for the others.

(Chicago 2015)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

caged by the power of the medium.

(NY 2015)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

changing the mythology.

(Boston 2015)

Picture taken by Vela Phelan under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

existing through the gaze of the others.

(London 2014)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

transgressing photographic rules.

(Sao Paulo 2015)

Picture taken by a friend under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

a creature among creatures.

(Chicago 2014)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

not alone!

(Shillong 2015)

Picture taken by a passer-by under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

aware of their ability to affect social memory.

(Hangzhou 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

staging an alternative mythology of photography.

(NY 2015)

Picture taken by Marita Isobel Solberg under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

operating the medium as trap.

(Shillong 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

practicing an apparatus of connection.

(Sao Paulo 2015)

Picture taken with a remote controller.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

hunting of future memories.

(Shillong 2016)

Picture taken using a timer function.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

believing in photography as the art of touching.

(Hangzhou 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

playing photography as a game of authority.

(Hangzhou 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

preoccupied by the paralysis of life inside the image.

(Hangzhou 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

fighting the distance that photography is creating.

(Beijing 2008)

Picture taken by Alexander Tovey under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

testing their sexuality through the lens.

(Hangzhou 2016)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

encouraging photographic therapy.

(Lima 2013)

Picture taken by an assistant under specific instruction, using my equipment.

The PhotoPerformer in Action -

living behind a thin layer of glass.

(Sao Paulo 2014)

Picture taken by Maurizio Mancioli under specific instruction.

“Becoming an Image is a ‘topos’: it testifies to an age-old urge to transcend the boundaries of space and time that confine the human body.”

(The PhotoPerformer 2016)

The Fabricated body

The PhotoPerformer is a kind of training aimed to project a conceptual persona and connect with its limits.

Following the Brazilian anthropologist Viveiros de Castro’s concept of the ‘Fabricated Body’ (1979), the specific aim of this project/research is to spend a considerable amount of time as The PhotoPerformer in order to alter my consciousness and document the process of transformation.

Looking through the camera is equal looking at a distorted image of the world.

Privileging the action to the image is like freeing photography from the program inbuilt in any digital camera.

The union of the Body Camera with the Body Human is a total absurdity! But who said absurdity should not be reached and practiced?

Ultimately the function of all these exercises is to honour the unexpected, the fragile, the doubt, the ironic and most for all the Imaginal.

Can the camera allow us to strengthen a connection with our bodies?

Is it by sabotaging the program of the camera that we can stop controlling our bodies?

Stunt Training

The PhotoPerformer underwent professional stunt trainings (British Action Academy 2016).

The stunt like the cameraman shares the ‘being invisible and anonymous’ position but their presence and skill are irreplaceable and essential for the success of the result.

The aim of the training was to merge the two roles in one and create a stunt cameraman. The juxtaposition of the physical with the fictional, the unicity of the risk with the repetition of the process, made this experiment very stimulating.

Here a small clip of the PhotoPerformer/Police/Hunter:

Can the PhotoPerformer reach stillness and movement at the same time?

Well, this particular exercise of jumping from a tall structure seemed to have resolved the problem: while in the air The PhotoPerformer was aiming at immobility.