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Laura Carbonell: A Hierophany as it has been described in the dictionary is a word coming from the Greek hiero, “sacred”, and phainein, “to show”. Furthermore, the term designates the manifestation of the sacred in whatever object throughout history. Whether the sacred appears in a stone, a tree, or an incarnate human being, a hierophany denotes the same act: A reality of an entirely different order than those of this world becomes manifest in an object that is part of the natural or profane sphere. Why calling your work Hierophany? Are you looking for a specific connection with the landscape when you photograph or are the images in themselves producing that sacred feeling?
Stefano Parrini: The title of this book was given by my editor Steve Bisson, I found it to be as apt as possible. Especially for the inclusion of the word hierophany. A word with a meaning deeply close to the feelings I had in front of these landscapes. So, there is a specific connection with that part of the world that was placed before my eyes, the images are a direct consequence of this frequency. Of course, the images we chose had to be hierophane, the editing was done from the beginning with this dimension. Let's say that the second characteristic is a consequence of the first.
Laura Carbonell: Most of the photographs you have made come from desert places. They all have a particular dusty and grainy aspect. When we look at those images, we feel the need to spend more time observing the earth, the composition of landscape as if we were trying to read what it has to say. But in the end what remains is a relief and a moment of connection with what is there. Tell us more about the way you made those photographs.
How long did it take and how where your journeys into those desert places?
Stefano Parrini: The creation of the photographs that appear in my book covers a span of about twenty years, there are mainly photographs of trips that I made out of a desire to discover certain places, at the time I did not have a clear idea of what I was going to do with them, I was letting myself be inspired by the great energy I felt. About three years ago, I thought a lot about some topics that I had felt close to me for a long time, and I started down a path that led me to take photographs with a well-defined line, which was the one that later gave rise to this book. A search for concepts that I had wanted to do for a long time and that was the classic closing of the circle.
Laura Carbonell: Capturing silence is becoming more and more a luxury in a noisy world. In theimages we see there is an apparent lack of life as the earth rhythm is much slower than ours. Were you looking for silence to create this sacred environment?
Stefano Parrini: The search for silence is a natural fact, I would say a consequence of the dimension in which we find ourselves. More than silence, I would say listening, something we are no longer used to doing. Listening is precisely the thing that I found myself doing naturally and that these photographs of mine invite you to do, to listen to what is going on in the natural environment. Imagine going into the desert and trying to hear: the wind, the shifting sand, even our body noises are more perceptible. Here, a different perception that puts us in touch with everything around us and with ourselves.
Laura Carbonell: There is very sculptural aspect in your photographs. Even if this landscape seems not inhabited, you care to listen to every single rock formation and capture an image of a very diverse and rich landscape. And that gives us the impression that we are getting close to earths essential living pulsion. Is this something you also wanted to show in your photographs or is this more the interpretation of an observant reader?
Stefano Parrini: A careful reader will certainly notice that there are references that are not random! My book contains elements that show that the earth is close and present in everything you see. There are photographs with phenomena (some are small installations I have made) that demonstrate a mysterious vitality of the planet, a pulsation that has moulded every single stone and created the environment we are facing. There are also many ancestral elements referring to human consciousness, to that long period when man began to put himself at the centre of the world. Here, the beginning is a bit like this, the becoming aware of ourselves and the universe around us.
Laura Carbonell: I would very much like to talk about the book. How did you work on the image selection first? Did you approach the publisher with a set of images or was this more a collaborative work?
Stefano Parrini: Regarding the selection of images, there was a lot of collaborative work between Steve Bisson and myself. I came with a body of images on which we then worked on refining our thinking about what we wanted to say. I really have a lot of images that I could have included in my book, of course the subject matter really required careful selection and not too much redundancy.
Laura Carbonell: In the book the differences in sizes and sequencing of the images give us the impression of following you as photographer in this search for the sacred. Did you conceive the book with a specific pathway or did you choose not to condition the reader’s mind and let him wonder through the images as the book goes on?
Stefano Parrini: The geometry of the photo sequence is really a path I created with my own perceptive line. It hasn't changed much since the first pdf I presented to Steve, right from the start there were accents and dimensions that were the result of this instinct of mine. Leafing through the book one is confronted with spaces and dimensions that I feel are in line with this way of seeing things. I don't know if it is a conditioning for those who leaf through the book, certainly it is a suggestion to approach a dimension present in the book.
Laura Carbonell: In her review about Possible hierophanies, Maria Cristina Comparato gives a very interesting description of her own sensations when flipping through the book. She says: “as I move through the pages of the volume, these words of the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu echo in my mind and I think that, if today we no longer know how to find a path that can give us back the meaning of our existence, it is probably because we have stopped marveling at the fact that, among billions of possibilities, that of life has managed to emerge and blossom, even if only for a tiny parenthesis in the enormous time of the universe”. Do you think that your book gets us closer to the meaning of existence?
Stefano Parrini: Cristina, who is a careful writer, hit with Mircea Cărtărescu's sentence the ultimate essence of my book, it was conceived as a reset that pushes us to ask ourselves questions that are very close to the inner mysteries that everyone carries with them. Taking a small step back and rediscovering the pleasure of searching within ourselves for something worth moving forward for.
Laura Carbonell: The design of the book was made by Rudi Van Delden. I was very much impressed by the quality of the book fabric, especially the type of paper, the printing, and the typographic selection. Most of the texts are designed as if they were rocks. These are subtle details that give your work even more transcendence. Tell us more about the designer’s approach on your book. How did he get to the essential decisions: cover, paper, print and typographic design?
Stefano Parrini: The book is the result of a three-way collaboration, Steve and Rudi and I worked together to achieve the result we see. Steve and I focused much more on the body and sequence of the images. After viewing several proofs, we also chose the papers for both the book and the box. Rudi gave that aesthetic touch that completed the typographic design. Some of Rudi's choices, such as the texts following the outline of the rocks, the font, which gave a nice balance to the whole book, and the choice of using a stone for the cover, were particularly appreciated! An important choice was also the paper for the box, where we gave a lot of importance to the colour, grey, which reflected the average tones of the whole book and the colour of the texts and the stone, red, which contrasted with everything else. As for the paper for the images, in close contact with the printer, we chose a matt paper that was suitable for printing that type of image, we then decided to use a pearl-coloured paper for the texts to give them a different characterisation.
Laura Carbonell: Why do you consider important to make a book out of this series?
Stefano Parrini: Making a book, for me, is very important. It means being able to make a small work of art and get it to people directly without filters. This book is just as important because it encapsulates a good period of my life and talks about concepts that I have always tried to express through the language of photography.
Making a book for this series was also important because of the esteem I have for the publisher and those who collaborated with me.
Laura Carbonell: Is this book dedicated only to photobook readers or do you think that it was made for a wider audience?
Stefano Parrini: I never think of a restricted audience for photography books, it would be really reductive to make a book just for people in the industry. I believe that the language of photography has always been understood by everyone and that everyone can find their own key. This book brings with it universally recognisable dimensions and brings with it arguments on which everyone can make their own contribution. The proof is that the book has been bought by many people who are not in direct contact with photography who nevertheless appreciated its contents. For example, in a presentation I gave at a secondary school, I was pleasantly impressed by the interest it aroused among the children. I would therefore say that photography books are for everyone and that perhaps the publishing world should be less sectorialised.
Laura Carbonell: A Hierophany as it has been described in the dictionary is a word coming from the Greek hiero, “sacred”, and phainein, “to show”. Furthermore, the term designates the manifestation of the sacred in whatever object throughout history. Whether the sacred appears in a stone, a tree, or an incarnate human being, a hierophany denotes the same act: A reality of an entirely different order than those of this world becomes manifest in an object that is part of the natural or profane sphere. Why calling your work Hierophany? Are you looking for a specific connection with the landscape when you photograph or are the images in themselves producing that sacred feeling?
Stefano Parrini: The title of this book was given by my editor Steve Bisson, I found it to be as apt as possible. Especially for the inclusion of the word hierophany. A word with a meaning deeply close to the feelings I had in front of these landscapes. So, there is a specific connection with that part of the world that was placed before my eyes, the images are a direct consequence of this frequency. Of course, the images we chose had to be hierophane, the editing was done from the beginning with this dimension. Let's say that the second characteristic is a consequence of the first.
Laura Carbonell: Most of the photographs you have made come from desert places. They all have a particular dusty and grainy aspect. When we look at those images, we feel the need to spend more time observing the earth, the composition of landscape as if we were trying to read what it has to say. But in the end what remains is a relief and a moment of connection with what is there. Tell us more about the way you made those photographs.
How long did it take and how where your journeys into those desert places?
Stefano Parrini: The creation of the photographs that appear in my book covers a span of about twenty years, there are mainly photographs of trips that I made out of a desire to discover certain places, at the time I did not have a clear idea of what I was going to do with them, I was letting myself be inspired by the great energy I felt. About three years ago, I thought a lot about some topics that I had felt close to me for a long time, and I started down a path that led me to take photographs with a well-defined line, which was the one that later gave rise to this book. A search for concepts that I had wanted to do for a long time and that was the classic closing of the circle.
Laura Carbonell: Capturing silence is becoming more and more a luxury in a noisy world. In theimages we see there is an apparent lack of life as the earth rhythm is much slower than ours. Were you looking for silence to create this sacred environment?
Stefano Parrini: The search for silence is a natural fact, I would say a consequence of the dimension in which we find ourselves. More than silence, I would say listening, something we are no longer used to doing. Listening is precisely the thing that I found myself doing naturally and that these photographs of mine invite you to do, to listen to what is going on in the natural environment. Imagine going into the desert and trying to hear: the wind, the shifting sand, even our body noises are more perceptible. Here, a different perception that puts us in touch with everything around us and with ourselves.
Laura Carbonell: There is very sculptural aspect in your photographs. Even if this landscape seems not inhabited, you care to listen to every single rock formation and capture an image of a very diverse and rich landscape. And that gives us the impression that we are getting close to earths essential living pulsion. Is this something you also wanted to show in your photographs or is this more the interpretation of an observant reader?
Stefano Parrini: A careful reader will certainly notice that there are references that are not random! My book contains elements that show that the earth is close and present in everything you see. There are photographs with phenomena (some are small installations I have made) that demonstrate a mysterious vitality of the planet, a pulsation that has moulded every single stone and created the environment we are facing. There are also many ancestral elements referring to human consciousness, to that long period when man began to put himself at the centre of the world. Here, the beginning is a bit like this, the becoming aware of ourselves and the universe around us.
Laura Carbonell: I would very much like to talk about the book. How did you work on the image selection first? Did you approach the publisher with a set of images or was this more a collaborative work?
Stefano Parrini: Regarding the selection of images, there was a lot of collaborative work between Steve Bisson and myself. I came with a body of images on which we then worked on refining our thinking about what we wanted to say. I really have a lot of images that I could have included in my book, of course the subject matter really required careful selection and not too much redundancy.
Laura Carbonell: In the book the differences in sizes and sequencing of the images give us the impression of following you as photographer in this search for the sacred. Did you conceive the book with a specific pathway or did you choose not to condition the reader’s mind and let him wonder through the images as the book goes on?
Stefano Parrini: The geometry of the photo sequence is really a path I created with my own perceptive line. It hasn't changed much since the first pdf I presented to Steve, right from the start there were accents and dimensions that were the result of this instinct of mine. Leafing through the book one is confronted with spaces and dimensions that I feel are in line with this way of seeing things. I don't know if it is a conditioning for those who leaf through the book, certainly it is a suggestion to approach a dimension present in the book.
Laura Carbonell: In her review about Possible hierophanies, Maria Cristina Comparato gives a very interesting description of her own sensations when flipping through the book. She says: “as I move through the pages of the volume, these words of the Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu echo in my mind and I think that, if today we no longer know how to find a path that can give us back the meaning of our existence, it is probably because we have stopped marveling at the fact that, among billions of possibilities, that of life has managed to emerge and blossom, even if only for a tiny parenthesis in the enormous time of the universe”. Do you think that your book gets us closer to the meaning of existence?
Stefano Parrini: Cristina, who is a careful writer, hit with Mircea Cărtărescu's sentence the ultimate essence of my book, it was conceived as a reset that pushes us to ask ourselves questions that are very close to the inner mysteries that everyone carries with them. Taking a small step back and rediscovering the pleasure of searching within ourselves for something worth moving forward for.
Laura Carbonell: The design of the book was made by Rudi Van Delden. I was very much impressed by the quality of the book fabric, especially the type of paper, the printing, and the typographic selection. Most of the texts are designed as if they were rocks. These are subtle details that give your work even more transcendence. Tell us more about the designer’s approach on your book. How did he get to the essential decisions: cover, paper, print and typographic design?
Stefano Parrini: The book is the result of a three-way collaboration, Steve and Rudi and I worked together to achieve the result we see. Steve and I focused much more on the body and sequence of the images. After viewing several proofs, we also chose the papers for both the book and the box. Rudi gave that aesthetic touch that completed the typographic design. Some of Rudi's choices, such as the texts following the outline of the rocks, the font, which gave a nice balance to the whole book, and the choice of using a stone for the cover, were particularly appreciated! An important choice was also the paper for the box, where we gave a lot of importance to the colour, grey, which reflected the average tones of the whole book and the colour of the texts and the stone, red, which contrasted with everything else. As for the paper for the images, in close contact with the printer, we chose a matt paper that was suitable for printing that type of image, we then decided to use a pearl-coloured paper for the texts to give them a different characterisation.
Laura Carbonell: Why do you consider important to make a book out of this series?
Stefano Parrini: Making a book, for me, is very important. It means being able to make a small work of art and get it to people directly without filters. This book is just as important because it encapsulates a good period of my life and talks about concepts that I have always tried to express through the language of photography.
Making a book for this series was also important because of the esteem I have for the publisher and those who collaborated with me.
Laura Carbonell: Is this book dedicated only to photobook readers or do you think that it was made for a wider audience?
Stefano Parrini: I never think of a restricted audience for photography books, it would be really reductive to make a book just for people in the industry. I believe that the language of photography has always been understood by everyone and that everyone can find their own key. This book brings with it universally recognisable dimensions and brings with it arguments on which everyone can make their own contribution. The proof is that the book has been bought by many people who are not in direct contact with photography who nevertheless appreciated its contents. For example, in a presentation I gave at a secondary school, I was pleasantly impressed by the interest it aroused among the children. I would therefore say that photography books are for everyone and that perhaps the publishing world should be less sectorialised.
Penisola Edizioni
Publishing house that researches
and publishes Italian authors.
2021 © Penisola Edizioni
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Termini e condizioni
Design Roberto Vito D'Amico
Penisola Edizioni
Publishing house that researches
and publishes Italian authors.
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Termini e condizioni
2021 © Penisola Edizioni
Design Roberto Vito D'Amico