honorable mention
Alessandro Pardi italy
title
Tangenziale
What I found, in this land that humans had effectively rendered uninhabitable, was the childlike joy of exploring, of walking aimlessly and wondering. What is more, I encountered sensory experiences that are usually denied to us in routine trips along the highway. In such circumstances, we are closed inside a car, and we see the landscape along the highway always from the same perspective: an unchanging cardboard backdrop that begins to seem all but unreal.
This shift in perspective is what lay behind the experiences of freedom and of renewed contact with nature that I mentioned earlier, but adjustments such as these have become increasingly difficult for us today. It becomes our responsibility to find “free zones” that allow us to experience the world from a different point of view.
A long time photographer, I started showing my personal work in the summer of 2013.
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entry description
The “tangenziale” of Milan is a ring of by-pass highways built around the city since the mid-'60s, with the aim of easing traffic congestion. In this project I sure want to document the highway and what lies beside and around it, but even more importantly, I want to share the thoughts and emotions I experienced as I explored those places and photographed them. Strange as it may seem, what I found as I wandered the terrains vagues alongside the Tangenziale, walked on the grass inside the loop of a cloverleaf, or simply looked out over the landscape that lay beyond the guardrail at a rest area, was an experience of freedom and a sense of direct contact with nature. Protected within the silence and fog of a winter morning, the landscape seemed willing to show itself, almost like a wild animal that had lost its fear of human contact.What I found, in this land that humans had effectively rendered uninhabitable, was the childlike joy of exploring, of walking aimlessly and wondering. What is more, I encountered sensory experiences that are usually denied to us in routine trips along the highway. In such circumstances, we are closed inside a car, and we see the landscape along the highway always from the same perspective: an unchanging cardboard backdrop that begins to seem all but unreal.
This shift in perspective is what lay behind the experiences of freedom and of renewed contact with nature that I mentioned earlier, but adjustments such as these have become increasingly difficult for us today. It becomes our responsibility to find “free zones” that allow us to experience the world from a different point of view.
about the photographer
Born in La Spezia (Italy) in 1966, I am a self taught photographer based in Milan. I find my inspiration in the places and spaces where we live, from interiors to urban settlements, which I try to represent in their essence, usually photographing them without people, as I find that the way we shape these places already reveals a lot about the way we live.A long time photographer, I started showing my personal work in the summer of 2013.
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