SPARK
SI-022, from issue 4, 2022.
Participate in Their Daily Life
Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni collaborate since 2013 for documentary photography projects. They focus on contemporary subjects, with a particular attention on the human aspects of each story.
CP We were introduced to each other by an art historian friend, and we started working on a project documenting one of the largest steel plants in Europe in Taranto, Southern Italy. We understood that we worked well together and were able to have a consistent visual approach. Raising awareness is one of the beautiful side effects of being a photographer that can get people involved. We recently published a body of work that we have been working on for the last six years about the epidemic of olive trees in southern Italy, which has changed the landscape drastically. As we got the show the work at different festivals around Italy, we were surprised to hear that anyone in the Northern part of Italy did not know anything about this olive tree epidemic. So our photograph has a role to inform as well.
UDÖ I had no idea that it takes six years from taking the photos to realizing the project as a book. Do you guys think about the final format before you shoot your images?
CP You take pictures, but you have a final media where these pictures are displayed. For example, the images you would shoot for a book project would differ from a newspaper because the format allows for freedom of expression. The photography should reflect your visual ideas. Whereas in a newspaper assignment, you know there are some requests that you have to fulfil because your photography serves the needs of the paper. In both cases, you always pre-visualize how your images will come out and fit into the context of the final format. You should know the story you are telling and how you are going to tell it.
CP Everything is a framework. You should always take the opportunities presented to you while sticking to the mental guidelines of your initial intention. You are photographing the reality that you are entirely soaked into situations out of your control. This is magic. For example, we wanted to build a set of unfiltered pictures with strong colors in Istanbul and combine them as provocative diptychs with strong energy. But after we shot the images, there were areas in the narrative that had to be filled, and you can’t plan this in advance. Because as photographers, we are figuring out the story as we shoot it. The narrative forms organically.
UDÖ What was your initial intention when photographing Istanbul? And What was the reality?
CP After spending some time in the city, we slowly got introduced to the Kurdish population and the LGBTQ environment. It’s full of really smart people. We were inspired by meeting the people who are really the spirit of the city and are vastly different from one another. Istanbul as a city is built on tensions. When a city mutates or undergoes a significant change, it expresses a lot of energy. For us, this was really important to capture with our photography.
UDÖ How do you go to a place where you are completely an outsider and gain their trust?
CP This is our approach. We participate in the daily life of the community and slowly form connections. We are patient. We meet people who then introduce us to other people. There are microcosms in the city, and the only way to explore them is through people. To get trust, you have to give your trust and be interested in their world. We work like this during the war in Ukraine or in Istanbul when there is peace. It’s like a participating anthropological approach.
CP Rather than documenting what, you have to document the people. One of our many works in Ukraine focused on women fleeing the war between the Ukraine-Poland border in a difficult journey. We had rare access to a shelter, and we started meeting women with their children. Eventually, we decided that we wanted to tell their story as a set of diptychs that feature a very close portrait and an object these women could carry with them who had a particular significance. For example, a woman grabbed a long kitchen knife while fleeing from her house as Russian troops advanced on her doorsteps. So her face and the knife together are quite symbolic. Another lady showed us her wedding ring because her husband was left behind in Ukraine to fight. This sort of interruption to your life must be an incredible pain. Their faces and objects became a way to tell a war story without photographing the fight. Shooting weapons imagery is the same in every war, but single stories of people are the real picture of the war.
CP In Istanbul, many people we met spoke quite good English, and some Kurdish people had quite good English as well, maybe less, but there was enough to be together. In Ukraine, this was a little bit more difficult since the level of English was lower, so we just used Google Translate as a tool. Sometimes, when you start talking to somebody, the lady just beside you says: “I can translate a bit for you.” So things happen more spontaneously. This is important for us because you create a barrier between you and others when you come with a translator. If you have a filter, the magic is broken. We prefer to overcome difficulties when reaching our subjects, that way we can fully keep the magic alive throughout the project.
this interview is edited for clarity and concision.
learn more about Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni
interview by Utkan Dora Öncül
Spark Interview-022