Alex Majoli: Libera Me
Trolley Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. January 2010
Book
Hardback
68 pages
978-1-907112-22-5 (ISBN)
Description
This photographic story is a personal exploration of loss, separation, heaven and hell. Inspired by Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author, Majoli elaborates on the notion that we are all "actors of life".
Libera Me is divided into three chapters. Chapter one, Persona, consists of individual black and white photographic portraits, whilst chapter two, Libera Me, is a surrealist composition of Latvian landscapes, with which Majoli explores the idea of paradise. The third chapter, Lacrimosa, is in colour, and emerges from Majoli's exploration of the memorials of the genocide in Rwanda, and their associations with the idea of hell.
This large format book focuses on the first chapter, Persona. In the twenty portraits only the face is visible, lit with a light that always shines from above, as if it were a divine light. Dramatic in nature, they suggest the notion of judgement, the question of what awaits us after we die and the idea that we are all going to be judged on the day of our death.
Libera Me is divided into three chapters. Chapter one, Persona, consists of individual black and white photographic portraits, whilst chapter two, Libera Me, is a surrealist composition of Latvian landscapes, with which Majoli explores the idea of paradise. The third chapter, Lacrimosa, is in colour, and emerges from Majoli's exploration of the memorials of the genocide in Rwanda, and their associations with the idea of hell.
This large format book focuses on the first chapter, Persona. In the twenty portraits only the face is visible, lit with a light that always shines from above, as if it were a divine light. Dramatic in nature, they suggest the notion of judgement, the question of what awaits us after we die and the idea that we are all going to be judged on the day of our death.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
35 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 255 mm
Width: 309 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
662 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-907112-22-5 (9781907112225)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alex Majoli was born in Ravenna, Italy, in 1971. He attended the Art Institute in Ravenna. His work focuses on the human condition and the theater within our daily lives. Over many years, Majoli has worked as a photojournalist. The experience of photographing people in all kinds of circumstances has led him to explore the idea that everyone is an actor in their own life. This is why he started the ongoing project, "Scene." He understands that his role as a photographer can make people perform in their own natural setting, so he tries to exaggerate this by using artificial light to dramatize an otherwise daily routine. His pictures become scenes in which people, through their performances, express themselves in what becomes a film set or a theater stage. The thin line between fact and fiction, documentary and art, human behavior and acting provides the kind of friction that keeps him returning to the places where the human condition is called into question. Even in the most tragic of miseries, he finds the theater, the pride, and above all, the magnificence of the human spirit.
Majoli's work is in various public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, MarguliesCollection, Snite Museum of Art, MUFOCO and Mucem. Among many honors, he has received the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Fellowship for Humanistic Photography, Guggenheim Fellowship, ICP Infinity Award, Getty Images Grant, NPPA Photographer of the Year and OPC Feature Photography Award. His books include One Vote (2004), Libera Me (2010), Congo (2015), Andante (2018), Scene (2019) and Opera Aperta (2021).
Alex Majoli lives in New York. He joined Magnum Photos in 1996, becoming a full member in 2001.
Majoli's work is in various public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, MarguliesCollection, Snite Museum of Art, MUFOCO and Mucem. Among many honors, he has received the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Fellowship for Humanistic Photography, Guggenheim Fellowship, ICP Infinity Award, Getty Images Grant, NPPA Photographer of the Year and OPC Feature Photography Award. His books include One Vote (2004), Libera Me (2010), Congo (2015), Andante (2018), Scene (2019) and Opera Aperta (2021).
Alex Majoli lives in New York. He joined Magnum Photos in 1996, becoming a full member in 2001.