Conversation with Stefania Zamparelli - Interview by Laura Campisi

Nothin’ Personal: By Laura Campisi for Bushwick Buzz magazine

May 24, 2015

Children and Stefania Zamparelli - Omo Valley, Ethiopia, February 2013 © Arthur from Poland

You are a traveler. What made you stop right here in New York?

NY was never my travel destination. I just moved here in 1991 to improve my English and to figure out if I could work as a photographer. NY had a special charm at that time and I got under its spell.

How would you describe Brooklyn to someone who’s never seen it?

Brooklyn is demographically compartmentalized. Neighborhoods are divided: Hipsters in Williamsburg, Artists in Bushwick, Russians in Coney Island, the Latinos somewhere else, etc.

Sadly, you will find a mix of different ethnic groups only in areas in the process to being gentrified, which by accident are the more interesting ones.

Please share your best Brooklyn story.

I will share my first Brooklyn story.

It was year 2000 and had to leave the unaffordable Manhattan where I had lived for nine years. I picked Brooklyn not by choice but by financial convenience. Previously I went to see some apartments in the South Bronx but the tiny size or a ground floor position with window facing a dumping area were not appealing. So I decided to check out Brooklyn. I started from Williamsburg. By bike, and block after block, I pushed myself further east and ended up in Bushwick, an all Latino neighborhood at that time. In the local stores the vehicular language was Spanish. I inquired in a real estate agency in Wyckoff Avenue and they said, “You are lucky. We just got a railroad apt vacant on a 3rd floor but it needs some fixing”. It was a two-bedrooms apt with a double entrance for $620 per month. The agency required one-month fee. I was happy and met the landlord, a gentle Italian-American fireman who had just purchased that 6-unit building in which, I later learned that I was the only one paying the rent.

One month passed by and my next-door neighbor, a young man who was running a 24 hours “business,” revealed me the story behind the vacancy of my apartment.

A family of 8 lived in it until one of the teenagers killed someone and run away. The entire family became fugitive leaving behind bills, furniture and mountains of rubbish and that was the scenario I saw on my first visit to the house.

I replaced a fugitive tenant  - I had just taken a convenient rent-stabilized apartment thanks to a crime - I felt terrible!

What’s the most impressive thing you’ve seen or experienced in your travels as a photographer?

The 2011 Egyptian Revolution! The energy created by the gathering of two million people was amazing. I still remember being literally stuck in the crowd in Tahrir and how in the afternoon of February 11 we all learned of Mubarak's resignation by the screams of “Allah akhbar”. It was not praying time but the word of mouth for the victory.

Sadly I could photograph only with a small camera. The military at the airport had confiscated my photo equipment with the exception of the compact one. They sealed and stored my stuff in a deposit. I got all back on February 14.

You had portrayed many different cultures with your camera. What is your take on humanity?

Humanity is the aim of my peregrinations: I search for sparkles of human behaviors.  I escape the darkness around me glimpsing dim lights at a distance but wanting to see them closer and bright.

Humanity and its values are transnational. They have no borders. I try to demonstrate that despite the different latitudes, fashion, eating habits and beliefs,  if exposed to similar circumstances, we all feel the same, just as we can all laugh at the same joke.

Visually speaking: a glance of a mother to her son, a worried expression, a happy smile, sometimes just a gesture in a specific context.

Child, West Papua January 2012

What is it that catches your eye when you are looking for a subject or an object to photograph?

The best is if I photograph within a theme, an event in which I can surf with my cameras in total freedom. Then the entire scenario is catching. Desirable subjects / objects multiply themselves just by my wishing them. I imagine a composition that an instant later is in front of my camera. I believe there is a sort of alchemic energy that makes a vision become tangible. Miracles seem to occur just like constellations appear to move.

I regard shooting out of a theme just as a viewing exercise, an attempt to escape frustrations for not having found a story that needs to be narrated. However, if the available light is right then I can visually appreciate everything from still life to candid portraits.

Selfie, Instagram, Photoshop. Everyone is a “photographer” these days. What are the advantages and flaws of the Image Era in your point of view?

The digital era has automated the act of photographing. It has reduced the emotional impact in favor of casualness. Obviously there are countless fantastic images on the net but often we see series of photos without a thread connecting them.

I mean, making a comparison, if we look at a dream, even the most bizarre oniric image although motivated by fear or desire will reveal its happening through delighting answers to pertinent questions.

Majority of these digital images generate no questions because are disconnected to the portrayed subjects and to the authors’ themselves.

Platitude prevails because there was no creative moment but separated minds and chances, no psychophysical integration, eventually no meanings.

More importantly, only few photographers will copyright their work. The remaining will inadvertently give away images that can be unethically used by capturing media, at the best, or by a state police, at the worst. That’s the case of photos portraying demonstrators.

Tahrir 2011

You were active in the student revolts during the 1970s. Do you still believe a social and Cultural Revolution is possible?

Unfortunately no.

I mean, there is plenty of discontent. People are identifying problems. There is access to alternative sources of info. We can form in groups and challenge the power structure.  Supposedly the new technology is spurring on these changes. We hear of young people using cell phones to topple dictatorships. We even hear how Obama, "change we can believe in", is a product of these grassroots movements. But things are not what they seem.

According to conspiracy theory, a small elite controls the world. Movements get manipulated. In conspiracy language it is called “controlled opposition.” 

Through technology, those who exercise hegemonic world rule favor revolts wherever it is to their advantage. This includes the Arab Spring.

The 68 movements were hijacked. Human rights groups got dismantled in senseless individualism; see gay rights, women rights, animal rights, green movements and more.

“MK Ultra” was a CIA’s project that started in the 50s and was later substituted by the “Monarch butterfly program”. The aim was to use mind control on individuals and crowds. The pop culture, the 60s, etc were all meant to be part of that scheme. Elites through Hollywood, Music industry and social networks still promote violence and death, sex out of grace, drugs for self-destruction and rock & roll for enhanced distraction.

Jails, hospitals, ghettos and cemeteries lend themselves as the “Darwinian” exit as they – the rebellious victims - fell in the trap.

The more I look at history, the more revisionist I become about social movements. There is injustice and need for change, but almost immediately it is channeled by what conspiracy theorists call "an unseen hand". It seems that major revolutions were planned by the very elite that the revolutions were supposed to be against.  England, the great capitalist country of the 19th century, gave home and shelter to Karl Marx. In the 20th century, Wall Street financed the Bolshevik revolutionaries. Even Hitler was financed by Anglo - American bankers.

Of course I still have dreams of social justice but I step back about being part of any political activities.

Tell us about Community Awareness Through Arts

It started as an experience aimed at expanding consciousness.

In the beginning the project focused on the wrongly convicted inmates in NY but it went adrift for reasons I prefer to forget.  Since then CATA has served my itinerant community projects.

Close you eyes and make a wish!

Done ☺