Author Archives: Marco Ristuccia

The missing Black

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The black shining

Photo: “The black door” 
© Marco Ristuccia

While progress and evolution are donating us amazing things, conversely, as time goes by, we’re gradually deprived of something else. A kind of loss which is so slow and subtle we can’t even get aware of.

One of my personal mournings is the death of Black, silently blown away by some sort of faded gray shade. It might have something to do with our unconscious fears, historically and psychologically associated with darkness. The fact is that nowadays the whole world seems to have the urge to be utterly lit up and crystal clear, like the icon of the heaven we all aspire to.

I really miss the mystery and inscrutability of the true Black that made us dream of what was behind, the deep Black of the night sky which allowed us to admire the glowing stars, the absolute Black of the venerable CRT TVs that rendered the movie experience so attractive, and the fat Black of the silver gelatine never reached by any digital print.

The Impossible magic

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Christine's neck - Impossible Silver Shade instant film (C) Marco Ristuccia

Photo: “Christine’s neck” – Impossible Silver Shade instant film 
© Marco Ristuccia

Since I started playing around with the new Impossible Project polaroid-like instant films, I had always incoherent, often disappointing results. By “disappointing” I mean that the shots I got barely matched the subject’s image depicted in my mind. Continue reading →

Welcome to “The light beam”

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BWW #001

Photo: “BWW #001” (Berlin) – 4’x5′ large format pinhole film camera 
© Marco Ristuccia

There’s nothing better than inaugurating this blog with a new project announcement.

However, besides being my official press page, The light beam ought to be also a discussion space and stimulus on concepts and photography. I hope that someone out there will capture this whisper among the screams and stay somehow tuned.

And going back to the light beams, here’s the first image from my new project. It focuses on the concept of “vacancy” as an increasingly rare subject to find in our noisy contemporary existence. Something that still has the power to make us feel uncomfortable, with the urge to fill it with things, colors, noises and even thoughts. Just like a black hole, the vacuum itself yearns to be filled in by attracting everything in his range with some sort of magnetic energy.

I feel this kind of vacancy in Berlin every time I find myself in one of its many “places not places”. Forgotten empty spaces overcome by dull blind buildings, whose walls resemble giant sheets waiting to be filled in.

I decided to capture them with the help of the analog pinhole photography for a series of reasons: the need to take my time into those places and the desire to make the film “breath” the atmosphere being the most important ones.

The project is ongoing and all the photos will be shot with a 4’x5′ large format pinhole camera on B/W film developed by myself.

Comments are welcome!

Stay tuned for further updates…