We can only imagine, on the basis of the emotion we felt when we saw the smaller Digigraphie on our desks, the visual impact of the blow-ups that greet visitors at the Duolun Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai. In these pages there is another element that describes the personality of Umberto: the road, the path of a physical and spiritual journey. The open road to infinity, the shape of the natural elements so mysteriously intelligible, the desire to learn, the openness to the unexpected and the unveiling of the ordinary that loses its apparent practice to become an incentive not to take anything for granted. We would like to mention here just two major series of his artistic career. The first is what we published in 2002, during an exhibition in Tokyo: “May 30 ’69. Hand made universe: Between paper’s body and true, sensitive skins: a new view on fashion by Umberto Stefanelli”. This project presented 70 pieces of fashion Japanese manga revised with mixed techniques. Each piece of work is unique, starting with the paper that could be painted, gilded, marbled or treated in any another way by the artist himself, before we get the picture. The other series is “…I stand at the door and knock”. A project born following the death of Pope John Paul II: a must see.<\/span><\/p>\n There is one last thing that we would like to say: Umberto’s love for the Far East culture is almost a “Mal d’Asia”, to cite and compare to the well known “Mal d’Afrique”. For a man and photographer who has risked his career first in London, then in New York, is a strange declaration of love but understandable. A love for “a land and a people who strive for nothing but perfection “and who seek to preserve this treasure in every way.<\/span><\/p>\n Sara Namias and Elisabetta Piatti Phrases in inverted commas are taken from Umberto Stefanelli’s blog: www.photogeisha.org<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a> L’impatto visivo delle gigantografie che accolgono i visitatori all’ingresso del Duolun Museum of Modern Art di Shanghai possiamo solo immaginarlo, sulla scorta dell’emozione che abbiamo provato quando abbiamo visto delle DigiGraphie pi\u00f9 piccole sulle nostre scrivanie. I rami degli alberi che ci separano dal cielo, il biancore, i mille piccoli petali sfumati, la mancanza di… <\/p>\n
\nThe branches of the trees that separate us from the sky, the whiteness, thousands of small feathered petals, lack of detail, “not very much color and a lot of movement”: everything says much about a real place, narrated in a personal and captivating way.
\n“The ability to excite and thrill. A complicated topic that has many facets. A fragrance, a melody, a picture, a gesture, a memory game, a handful of words. Emotion is a moment. The shorter, the more intense it becomes”.
\nIn these words is the human desire that what we do, the result of our commitment to reality, whatever it is, has a meaning, a reason.
\nThe ability to excite requires the ability to get excited and it is with this assumption that we understand that these images come from a personal perception, which translates instantly in an emotion for everyone, thanks to the synthetic capacity of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe Polaroid has a very important part in his career: evocative and emblematic of a capacity for reflection and a 360 degree insight on the meaning of life, accompanied by those handwritten words that do not seek praise.
\nThis is by no means improvisation but instinctive reaction to what is seen simply recorded in a photographic image: the sum of an author’s true creativity is recognizable by his perseverance in dealing with the issues that creative intuition evokes followed by the untiring commitment to pursue them, experiment and convey them.
\nUmberto Stefanelli has never stepped away from this “material” commitment: his, is a real dedication to fine-art photography and you can really appreciate it when you see it in practice, in its physical materiality.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nZoom magazine www.zoom-net.com<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/umbertostefanelli.com\/photogeisha\/public\/duolun_invitation_card.jpg\")
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