„Keeping in touch with nature is the best way to find our way inside ourselves and discover every shred of our soul. Thanks to nature, we are able to see our thoughts, feelings and emotions.”
Pictures from Terra are landscapes assembled in a mirror image. They were taken in Malta – being devoid of people and not having any reference points to a specific latitude. The key to the structure of the book is number three. Three chapters:
Peregrinatio – Pilgrimage,
Abyssus – Abyss,
Contemplatio – Contemplation.
Each accompanied by three quotes from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Terra is the story of a spiritual journey. Its subsequent parts represent different stages of life of a person: a moment of crisis, a moment of doubt, followed by a period of overcoming adversities and one’s own weaknesses or by their acceptance. The pictures reflect emotional states, but also elicit a response from the reader, causing them to feel anxious while at the same time bringing a sense of purification, inner quiet and peace. Terra is an attempt to use photography in order to depict the most primal and deep spiritual states. But the story of these states can be very personal – for me it was the experience of parting ways, of an emotional breakdown and of subsequent recovery, which ultimately resulted in the creation of this book.
It is important for the elements of nature featured in the photos to be recognizable, because I think of nature as having this great, primal power. At the same time, the ideas of abstract art and creating ambiguity are closer to my heart than the idea of simply expressing beauty of nature. By pursuing these principles in an unusual form of triptychs and mirror compositions, I have established my own place in photography.
