Sunaparanta: Goa Centre for the Arts is currently presenting the debut show by
photographer, Leonardo Pucci till May 24, 2018. The show titled ‘Episodes
(Without a Real Order)’ is the first solo photographic exhibition by Leonardo
Pucci. With curatorial direction by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, the show is
produced by patrons Dipti and Dattaraj Salgaocar.
Leonardo Pucci, a self-taught
photographer born in Pisa, Italy, is currently living between Paris and Rome.
He links his first memories of photography to his father, who would record
every moment of their family life. His debut show, Episodes (Without a Real
Order) opens at Robin Rice Gallery, New York, before traveling to Goa. The
exhibition will be travelling to Mumbai in June and Delhi’s Nature Morte in
July, as Sunaparanta, collaborates with Project 88.
At first sight, the photographs may
make you feel uncomfortable as it feels like peeking into the lives of
strangers at their most intimate moments but that is what Leonardo was trying
to capture. Leonardo showcases private, intimate moments in the lives of
individuals or couples in a candid fashion, capturing their vulnerabilities as
well as well as their sensual side. However, what interests Pucci most is the
observer’s narrative to these images –curiosity and emotion, coupled with vague
and subtle feelings of discomfort or embarrassment.
Describing his episodes, Leonardo
says, “My photographs are like theatrical settings where the real protagonist
is the observer’s intimacy and that’s why these shots are impressed in his mind
as emotions, sensations and memories.”
Shot mostly at dusk or at night, Leonardo’s imagery
creates a vague tension in his observer, the idea that you are looking at
something you shouldn’t be seeing provokes a feeling of curiosity and emotion,
paired with a subtle discomfort or shame. Through the artist’s use of strong
geometric compositions and his almost three-dimensional contrasting colors, the
photographs reveal moments that are usually secretive and hidden, eliminating
the distance between the observer and the subject. The photographs have been
shot in Goa, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Rio De Janeiro, New York, Taos,
Rome, Cannes and Carson.
