An Index of metals

My Index of metals at New Exposure Photography Competition 2013

An index of metals is the title of the last opus by Italian composer Fausto Romitelli: his work was based on the idea of sound as a matter to be craft. As Valerio has to find a way to build up a discourse of his body –  since he has to write an index of his metals, of his primary matters – we used fashion photography as a tool to investigate that kind of effort. My Index of metals tries to describe the tension produced when you are required to dress to express yourself and your body project. The starting point of the series is a not a dress, it is a drawing representing the metal as matter to be indexed. Our index is composed by six entries: grain, thickness, porosity, brightness, density and stretchability.  The same words used by Fausto Romitelli to talk about the matter of his sound. They seemed to us the best words to describe also the acting work, the photography work and the fashion work.

Despite having worked several times with professional photographers, twenty three years old Valerio is not a professional model. He considers himself as an actor. We previously worked together on a book called Sviene (how do you feel in photographs?), a little photo-essay on casting photographs he always needs to shoot for his agency. As he was preparing an audition for the Academy of Performing Arts in Rome, we started discussing about the text choice, about the way to perform. Eventually he asked: how should I dress? What and how could I wear to show my body matter?

New Exposure Photography Competition 2013 Vogue Magazine and Bottega Veneta International Finalist  Exhibtion september 10, Open House Gallery, NY.