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 ☺