Silvia Arecco and Gaëlle Astier-Perret, our readers picks #287, both capture and transform territories. Two lonely travellers revealing the notion of intimacy, and the story of a place.
Silvia Arecco
“Photography has a demanding nature. It is for me a necessity to tell stories from another reality – from a distanced past or a space we want to revisit”,
Silvia Arecco says. The Italian photographer and film director and editor produces a body of work inspired by memory, nostalgia and forgetfulness. “I left my native island, Sicily, 5 years ago, and this is when I started taking pictures: to remember the places I’ve lived, live and will live in, and never forget that there is always life in the apparent muteness of these images-memories”, she explains. Brought to life by poetry, the artist’s photos bring an abstract and dreamy dimension to reality. In colour as in black and white, they reveal the grace of a moment, or a landscape. “I have a tendency to erase and/or recreate atmospheres that no longer exist, to deconstruct and reconstruct”, the photographer adds. Inspired by her favourite photographers Antoine D’Agata and Chris Fiel, she blurs the world and stager her own roaming.
© Silvia Arecco
Gaëlle Astier-Perret
Photographer based in Paris, Gaëlle Astier-Perret turned to the medium when she was studying plastic arts. “My mother passed away at that time. My understanding of time, reality and existence was deeply transformed. Since then, imagery has become the heart of my practice”, she tells us. Trusting her intuition, the artist produces long-term series, exploring numerous territories. “I need to listen to the people living and working there, to look at scientific data to sharpen my gaze and build my project. I put all of these in perspective with the climatic crisis and recent change of era”, she explains. Started 2018, the series Les dunes qui marchent (The dunes that walk, ed.) was born in the Arcachon Bay, in France. Vegetation, minerals and human tracks scatter across the seaside, retracing the artist’s steps. “I first immersed myself in this place’s atmosphere, then I interacted with human actors, all working closely with this moving nature”, she says. An intimate story, evoking erosion, and rising sea-levels.
© Gaëlle Astier-Perret
Cover picture: © Silvia Arecco
