Solastalgia - Casting a spell that charges the commonplace with mystery
Nerina De Marchi
I have always admired Surrealist photography's ability to shock and move viewers in ways other forms of photography cannot. By controlling reality and assembling dream-like images, through this practice, photographers can evoke powerful and ungraspable emotions in viewers, which challenge preconceptions and expand sensory experience and relationism. Today more than ever, in a world where individuals have mastered the art of representing a filtered beauty, it is vital to capture our world's unappealing, vulgar, and condescending aspects. Photographers are faced with a responsibility to enhance contrasts and outline controversies while blurring binaries and dualism by converging personal and environmental changes. In present circumstances, it is challenging to reveal the environment's intricate beauty to inspire viewers to appreciate its fragility by unraveling the possible psychological impacts of environmental change. With these notions in mind, I tried to spark meaningful conversations that can inspire an extensive range of feelings that cannot be classified as positive or negative but are undoubtedly uncomfortable. This project has tried to elaborate the vastly explored and articulated environmental concerns through various imaginaries, their respective meaning, and value while escaping mainstream representations of such thematics.
