About This Project

Lorenzo Pallotta

The “Ospiti” project was born at the same time as the editing phase of the documentary film “Terra Nova – Il paese delle ombre lunghe”, which had its world premiere at the 41st Torino Film Festival. The film recounts the navigation of the icebreaker ‘Laura Bassi’ to the southernmost point of the planet. The photographic project is divided into three phases and features. 1. Landing: The moment of the Laura Bassi’s landing on the Antarctic continent not only marks the conclusion of the film, but also represents the transition from the collective experience of sharing the journey to the individual one. In this sense, my personal experience on the continent, after more than 40 days at sea, is transformed into an authentic personal, existential and research diary. 2. Discovery and settlement: From the first day spent on dry land, I took the decision to leave the camera aside and tackle a different type of storytelling than film: more immediate, synthetic, but at the same time strongly instinctive and visceral. I chose to exclude, at least at this stage, the rational part of the journey I had made up to that point, characterised by dangerous routes and precise coordinates. 3. Travel notes: I decided to use the camera with which I took my first photos at the age of 6 on a school trip: a disposable camera. I thought about the idea of expressing through photography an extraordinarily free feeling, typical of children of that age. I decided to take this same photographic approach with me when I ventured to the Antarctic continent. It was as if I wanted to capture the essence of that place instinctively, without filters or artifice. Photography, at that very moment, carried with it a strong playful and liberating spirit. I wanted the images to be as true as possible to the concept of discovering a place I had never seen. I wanted to capture within the photographs my condition as a ‘guest’. The feeling of setting foot on dry land again. The frustration that an individual often feels in not recognising anything familiar from his or her own experience, from his or her own experience. I wanted to break the classical spatial coordinates we are used to, restoring a sense of disorientation and isolation. What remains of the human being is simply his passage, his shadow. A number of eight shots with different sizes and dimensions would be appropriate for the photo exhibition, depending on the space available.

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