Interview
Gianfranco Merati
Gianfranco Merati (b. Asmara, Eritrea, Africa) is an Italian photographer based in London. Gianfranco’s motivation as a photographer is that ‘beauty is everywhere’. He seeks to reveal it. For the last decade he has been developing his photographic practice, through building skills and reflecting on projects. Influenced by living in Africa and then Italy, as well as time spent in other parts of the world, he photographed his surroundings. While travelling and living in different locations, he captured images that epitomized the place or documented encounters with people living there. During this period, he created several projects in Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and China. As his practice grew Gianfranco’s observation turned to investigation and he started developing abstract photography within a studio setting.
Exploring the complex geometry found within nature, he has created many photographic series including projects revealing tessellating patterns within insects’ wings; magnetic fluid ‘pulled’ into rippling miniature landscapes; and the delicacy of flowers encased in ice. Using both high-tech methods and innovative use of basic means, each final image is exacting and verging on the unreal. This, despite the fact that Gianfranco does not manipulate his images digitally to create any illusions in his work.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I am a self-taught photographer and I started my journey into photography organically. I did not sit down and said to myself "I am now going to become a photographer". Rather, I gradually started observing the world through my photographic lens, and discovered that in many ways I did not know the world all that well. New aspects of a portion of the world that surrounds us were revealed by some of my photographs and I found that fascinating. A process of discovery both of the surroundings and of myself.”
What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?
“Science, nature, and discovery infuse all my work. I use my photography practice to explore and test the limits of visual perception. I approach all my projects in a bespoke way; starting with researching and exploring the properties of the material selected so I can understand how to work it. I then begin experimenting with light. I explore how best to use it to contour the subject matter for clear and descriptive images. I have built-up repetition and contrast within series of photographs on each subject. Complex problems are thrilling. I embrace the technically difficult as it challenges me to produce art that surpasses those challenges. Pushing boundaries, subverting expectations, endlessly and relentlessly searching for beauty and the unseen. The geometry of nature is a huge inspiration to me. I often work with very close crops of the microscopic structures I photograph. This transforms their intrinsic patterns and textures into the abstract, allowing space for the viewers to engage their imagination. I have made explicit the implicit intricacies of chemistry and physics, exposing the detail within common compounds such as water, glass, sugar, spices, flowers, light and more. My explorations have revealed flowers within droplets of magnetized fluid, colourful ice shelves within sugar crystals, and more.”
Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?
"I plan my work and I go as far as noting down how a given project will work. However, more often than not, I discover new things during the execution of a given project and that can either open-up the way for new projects or provide opportunities for "adjacent" explorations. The discovery that leads to planning a project can however occur spontaneously. For example, a while ago I discovered in my garden that leaves that fall and die, decompose into beautiful "skeletons". Something I had never observed before and hence, I began exploring that theme through a project.”
Are there any art world trends you are following?
“Not particularly, in that sense I am a bit of a hermit. My discovery is fed a lot by solitude and reflection. I do, however, visit exhibitions and galleries often but that could be from classic painters to modern avant-garde. There are things that I love at all extremes of the spectrum. And, of course, things that I do not like too...”
What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?
“The process is somewhat unconscious. Ideas pop to my head in ways that are not entirely clear to me. I then reflect on the ideas, plan the execution and proceed. In many instances I also have to document myself on scientific phenomena, which underpin some of my projects. The techniques are all related to photography and my aim is to have the final result as close as possible to what I want, straight off the camera. I do not have anything against heavy post-processing of images, but I rather spend more time to get things right on camera, than apply heavy post-processing afterwards. The materials that I use are very diverse. From liquid compounds, to glass spheres, to sugar, to spices, to water in its various forms, to magnetic fluid, to liquid metal and the list goes on.”
What does your art mean to you?
“It is a form of expression. I have ideas that keep pushing to come out and I must bring them out. That is not really a choice. It is concurrently a bit of a torment, as pictures never look good enough at close inspection. I keep wanting to improve this or that, but with a little pragmatism, I force myself to close a project at one point, so that I can move to the next.”
“Pushing boundaries, subverting expectations, endlessly and relentlessly searching for beauty and the unseen. The geometry of nature is a huge inspiration to me.”
What’s your favourite artwork and why?
“There isn't one. There are too many out there to be able to reduce the whole to one. I love Caravaggio's paintings for the dramatic feel they transmit. But I also love Kandinsky's or Piero Manzoni's work for their innovativeness: they are different. They provoke. And these are only three examples that come to mind right now, but the list of art I love is very long.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“My work has been exhibited in various places across the globe, together with other formidable photographers. I have won several awards, but I wouldn’t go through that list as it would be tedious.
Ultimately, first and foremost, the projects that I do are for me. If others can gain some benefits from my research, that is wonderful, but it is not the main objective.”
