Modern anachronisms

MODERN ANACHRONISMS

The platinotype technique
in the photographic works of
Enrico Maria Lattanzi

Enrico Maria Lattanzi is moved by photographic research. More, from listening. An observing of himself and a perceiving of the outside, catching of both the most intimate and silent dimension, the one that goes to fall on the images covering them with a temporal suspension in which small wonders are hidden.

Still life is the choice.

Clean, refined, and the image, which appears quiet, actually holds great energy.

The clean taste, combining casualness and compositional rigor, is an indispensable stylistic feature in which the use of light in a plastic or brushstroke sense is always placed strongly, often resulting in earthy blacks that push deep into the air.

BROKEN

Platinum/Palladium print on Arches Platine 310 gr paper.

Image format 39 x 32 cm, on paper 41,5 x 35 cm

Acid free passe-partout mounting, front 2.4 mm, back 1.2 mm, format 60 x 50 cm

Print run no. 3 numbered copies and 2 out-of-print author copies

Year of production 2010

Year of print 2022

Signed with date and embossed

However, the lens also lingers in softer nuances, penumbras that contribute to the narrative character of some themes, or colors that, investigated in full light, pierce the two-dimensional support almost with a leap in perspective. The most studied theme is that of the residue, everything that is let go, waste from the sea, trace of what has been, waste from an ancient profession, and with it we probe the transformation, the action of time that makes what is lived that was once alive, that makes memory what was action.

Shadows, edges or filaments are outlined by the photographer’s shy personality with a wise light, full of meaning and great understanding of the compositions.
Existence subject to biological metamorphosis and the nostalgic change of memory is then accompanied by more figurative themes, female forms considered however as if they were also still lifes, so permeated by the photographer’s inner drive as to represent a transference of his universe, becoming its emanations and pure expressive means of its silent language

CHAOS 2 – (under processing)

Platinum/Palladium print on Arches Platine 310 gr paper

Print run no. 3 numbered copies and 2 out-of-print author copies

Year of production 2010

Skyline

Mano

Enrico Maria Lattanzi is a painter and sculptor, although he uses a photographic lens.

As a painter he is heir to the great luministic tradition of the Italian seventeenth century, of that Caravaggio, above all, who was an unsurpassed master of moral realism and truth, whose elevated dimensions he was able to achieve through the skilful use of light: with the strong and clear chiaroscuro contrasts which give truth and relief of sign, color and volume to the things represented.

Lattanzi’s photography also “paints” reality with expert lights that lively and decisively oppose the shadows or even the totality of darkness.

Armando Ginesi

CHAOS 1 – (under processing)

Platinum/Palladium print on Arches Platine 310 gr paper

Print run no. 3 numbered copies and 2 out-of-print author copies

Year of production 2021

The subjects (which photography in any case gratifies) chosen by Lattanzi are premeditatedly irrelevant as such, that is, subjects without specific qualities, such as a folded sheet of paper, a crushed plastic bottle, a wooden twig, rubbish, etc. ., but which often, in the perspective-luminous assemblage, on the photographic set in the atelier, tend to establish themselves as a metaphor, even a religious one.

These images, however, have their own expressive autonomy, that is, they are established as photographic works, rather than as reproductions, with the aim of creatively constructing a specific aesthetic reality of the expressive medium used, which is Photography.

Enrico Maria Lattanzi’s art is Photography, and that’s it; photography as visual education, as well as an expressive means.

Italo Zannier

FIORI 1

Platinum/Palladium print on Arches Platine 310 gr paper.

Image format 45,5 x 34,6 cm, on paper 52,5 x 41 cm

Acid free passe-partout mounting, front 2.4 mm, back 1.2 mm, format 60 x 50 cm

Print run no. 3 numbered copies and 2 out-of-print author copies

Year of production 2022

Year of print 2022

Signed with date and embossed

A Platinum/Palladium print has the look and feel of a high-quality engraving. The more or less warm, nuanced and opaque rendering of the image (which is incorporated into the paper itself) gives it a three-dimensional character, unique and superior to any other photographic printing technique. The paper on which the chemical solution is spread is made with natural fibers (linen, cotton, mulberry, hemp, etc.) without dyes or additives, often also made by hand, remaining the absolute print with existing longevity and stability.