Giuliano Berti
by Giuliano Berti from Turin, Italy
SELF-PORTRAITS AS A MOVIE STAR (The Shinning by Stanley Kubrick)
This picture is part of a series of self-portraits I shot during Covid-19 lockdown. It's the chronicle of the two months I spent alone in my tiny flat in Turin, Italy. It is the story of the wide range of moods I’ve experienced, and of the impact this long isolation had on me.
It all started on March 9th, 2020.
Like everyone, I started keeping myself busy with all kinds of entertainment. I finally had time - a lot - but ironically, I felt like I didn’t have enough. I wanted to make the best out of it and do the things I always left in a corner waiting: reading, drawing, studying French, learning to play an instrument, and so on.
I was stressed. I had to rush!
Then the lockdown continued and after that short period of hyper-productivity, I had to take a pause. Laziness and boredom were my new companions.
My days - as in the movie “Groundhog day” – started being pretty much the same, one after the other, but my moods and my feelings were constantly changing. I was in a whirlpool of unpredictable feelings. Slowly and silently, a few words started echoing in my mind: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” This is how this single picture came into my mind.
I placed my camera on a tripod and a strobe in front of my bathroom and started shooting.
Suddenly I realized I had found a new way to express my moods, challenge my creativity, and keep myself busy at the same time. Looking for movies I loved and re-enacting their main scenes became my new daily routine.
The “Self-portraits as a movie star” project - started as a game to try to cope with forced isolation - soon became a great instrument to look at myself from outside and an amazing way to express myself.
My plan is to continue shooting in order to create my truly personal collection of movies.
SELF-PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONFINEMENT
Curated by Svetlana Bachevanova
A collection of self-portraits made by photojournalists from five continents during the unprecedent lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic.
Photographers are people on the road, living to document the lives of others.
Constrained by the lockdown, many of them had their first experience of being still long enough to begin seeing and understanding small details about who they are, their lifestyles and values, that were overshadowed while they were busy. These self-portraits express their experience.
This is a unique collection of self-portraits from some of the best lenses in photojournalism at an historic moment.
Photographers in Confinement is a project in process and I welcome additional submissions from photojournalists at svetlana@fotoevidence.com
I am looking for potential exhibition partners in the USA and abroad.
Svetlana Bachevanova is a founder and publisher of FotoEvidence, long time photojournalist and curator.
