Spanish intoduction essay by Fernando Marcos Ibanez for the Martino Chiti's photobook SUSPENDED CITIES (Portraits from the underground) Edited by Crowdbooks “The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than when in lone bedrooms...
moreSpanish intoduction essay by Fernando Marcos Ibanez for the Martino Chiti's photobook SUSPENDED CITIES (Portraits from the underground)
Edited by Crowdbooks
“The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than when in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors). People’s faces are in naked repose down in the subway.” Walker Evans
Portraits, 35mm colour slides, from 12 different underground networks worldwide,(Paris, Rome, London, Napoli, Oslo, Madrid, New York, Mexico DF, Santiago de Chile, Tunis, Delhi and Tokyo).
This work is reflected in and transcends the images shot by Walker Evans in the New York subways in the 40’s. It doesn’t make reference to any specific place but to distant and different cities which appear here as if closed in one single space. The faces, which express the suspension and the naked rest of the passengers that use this means of transport every day, become metaphors as much of human essence as its modern dimension. Like many “flaneur” the people transit, linger, wait and leave. Behind the reality of constant movement is the veil of constant suspension.
“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.” Italo Calvino, Invisible cities
Martino Chiti was born in Livorno, 1976. He realized documentaries and photo reportages, as well as working with video and new media during festivals of art and entertainment related to music and visual arts. Photographer, filmmaker and video artist, he's always looking for new experimentations.