UGO RICCIARDI ∙ NIGHTSCAPES

Enchan­ted, silent, sub­tle. These are the environ­ments in which the Turin–based pho­to­gra­pher Ugo Ric­ci­ardi (born 1975) frees an ima­gi­nary dark and light in per­fect balance. An idea that came about by acci­dent, play­ing with his son’s Christ­mas lights, and sup­por­ted by the neces­sity of soli­tude, silence and nature. The fun­da­men­tal prin­ciple: apply the idea to the land­scape, showing the inter­ven­tion of the pho­to­gra­pher. There is a uni­que inspi­ra­tion: the sub­conscious. So the aut­hor trans­forms fami­liar pla­ces into magic visi­ons in which the obscu­rity and the light of the moon create a back­ground to mys­te­rious light images. The use of black and white is essen­tial, that helps the escape from the rea­lism of colour, taking your eye beyond the sur­face in a plane where space and the moment are abso­lute.
The pro­cess is labo­rious. By day the selec­tion of the frames, the trees, the roots and the sto­nes, won­de­ring about what could hap­pen during the full moon, when the light of the moon crea­tes long and silent shadows. By night expe­ri­men­ting with the cir­cles of light that ani­mate new life among the shadows, con­side­ring dif­fe­rent flee­ting con­tours, while ever­y­thing else is covered by dar­k­ness.
The result is “Nightscapes”, a world sus­pen­ded bet­ween rea­lity and dream, cha­rac­te­ri­zed by shadows of vague light, in which the scene reigns abso­lute, while the sym­me­try and the geo­me­try of the spaces soli­dify the con­cept. An artistic and spi­ri­tual jour­ney to find the way, expres­sed in the begin­ning by the wakes of light that accom­pany the obser­ver moving into the sub­conscious, wit­hout sear­ching for a sense until the end. So, this is the first step, we are in front of a sym­bo­lic door to dis­co­ver the only muse: light. Your guide to an unreal atmo­s­phere where moments of tran­si­tion and obser­va­tion coexist in a peace beyond. This is a place of pas­sage, inha­bi­ted by lumi­nous souls in com­plete sym­bio­sis with nature, that makes you part of this world. A rea­lity that is unvei­led and lea­ves space to ima­gi­na­tion. It’s this that is Ugo Ricciardi’s final objec­tive: to unco­ver the import­ance of an indi­vi­dual sub­jec­tive vision though artistic crea­tion.

(Vanessa Fer­r­auto)