I just spent a few days in the Apulia region of Italy (“the heel of the boot”) and saw a lot of doors there. I wasn’t specifically looking for them, but when I reviewed my camera roll, I just found a ton of doors. Not enough for an entire series, but enough to be noticeable.
I did not know that I would be here in Monopoli during their annual photography festival, so it was a nice surprise to see posters all around, as soon as I got off the train. The good thing with going places with absolutely no plan or schedule is that you sometimes stumble upon this type of events, out of nowhere. And because of that, I was able to spend an entire day walking around the city and visiting all the museums and galleries open for this festival.
What I’ve seen made me think about something I wrote last year while in Japan, about photography, art and seeing things. I still believe there’s not much value in taking pictures of works of art, and still believe that this type of experience is an excellent exercise in seeing things, between the works of art, or between the things you’re “forced” to see. It just happens to be a very specific context, that works well for me. Seeing works of art maybe puts me in a mindset that I’m unable to reach otherwise.
I took a few pictures of some of the pieces displayed for this occasion, but once again, I believe that the most interesting ones happen to be those I took while walking from gallery to gallery.
I like when pictures have a story, but that’s something I still find very difficult to craft, or create. I wouldn’t call it magic, but it’s very close to that. It’s something intangible and impossible to grasp. In my case, this is one of the few things that can clearly make the difference between a good and a bad picture. When I look back at my pictures, “does this picture have a story?” is one of the first (or maybe the first) thing I always ask.
I like the composition and framing from this one (however, I probably shoud have been one step closer, but I didn’t want to distract the little dog), but it doesn’t really have a story. My way of thinking about the story in a picture is sometimes painful, maybe even cruel. But in most of the cases, there’s not much room for interpretation and it’s very clear: a picture either has it, or doesn’t have it, and there’s not much that can be done to this fact after it’s been captured. I either captured the story, or didn’t. And in this case I didn’t.
To get back to my point about pictures of works of art, here’s another picture of another door shot in the Pino Pascale Fondazione in Pogliano a Mare, a few kilometers away from Monopoli (side note about this location: it was saved in my bookmarks long before I started this trip, as a result of some research I did so long ago I can’t remember what made me add it to my bookmarks).
At best, the only story in this picture is that I was present in this gallery, like a cold evidence, or a proof, but not much more than that. Lighting inside art galleries is usually good, and the framing and composition are okay, so it ends up being an an okay picture, but a very empty one. The works of art being exposed actually tell a very interesting story, but the picture I captured has almost no substance.
Now look at this one, back in Monopoli. It doesn’t show any work of art, and I don’t need to look twice to tell that it has a story. How do I know that? I genuinely have no idea.
Doors may actually be one of the easiest ways to frame and highlight anything, in photography. This could be the reason why it’s used so much, and it’s an easy tip to apply to any photography style: look for something to frame your subject. A window, a door, a tree, a structural something. It works, and it sounds easy because it is. But be careful about not using this tip too much, and maybe try to also shoot things that are not doors.
Like this ladder.
What’s interesting about this ladder is that I absolutely have no way to tell if it’s here as a work of art, or here as a ladder to nowhere, or just here as a ladder. Given that I found it within boundaries of the contemporary art museum in Napoli, I believe it could legitimately pass as (or pretend to be) a work of art, but at the same time, I don’t even think you’re supposed to see it. I found it by accident, while wandering too far from the exit in the inner yard, and by looking up. It was just there, waiting to be captured. So I did it.
That’s the story of this ladder.
Where I’ve been:
PhEST Festival Internzionale di Fotografia e Arte - Monopoli (Aug 30 - Nov 3rd, 2024)
Fondazione Pino Pascali - Pogliano a Mare