Vulcano
Giulia De Marchi is a photographer based in Treviso, a city in the Veneto region in the North of Italy. Giulia focuses on researching the connection of humans with nature. The themes of pondering on day-to-day life and the exploration of the regular from an angle of nature’s grandeur and beauty are prominent in the body of Giulia’s work. We speak with Giulia about the desire of a photographer to freeze a moment, the contrasts in the power of humans and nature, the silhouette of a person in this type of environment.
Inspired by Patrick Brydon’s ‘A Tour Through Sicily and Malta: In a Series of Letters to William Beckford,’ Giulia sets her mind on discovering Etna, an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily. Her latest research and series Vulcano suggest a topic of everyday life in opposition to an extraordinary experience of something significant, the way it might or might not affect a person visiting the volcano, their fantasies, and realization of oneself in the world in which nature is an omnipotent essence.
In her series, Giulia presents the emotional encounter with the highest volcano in Europe with continuous eruptions throughout the late 20th century to this day. Giulia expresses the astonishment from the encounter, “In this place, where everything seems petrifying, once again, nature does its best, and plants and flowers soar from the black and hot earth. Through the perception of colors and smells in the area, through the sensation of hot rocks beneath the feet, the questions about the human experience are raised for the viewer to find answers to.
‘The craters of Etna are a real wonder. The colors are extraordinary, and the feeling of warmth of lava stones under your feet is a unique sensation.’
Why did you choose to create a series about the specific volcano Etna?
If you visit Sicily, you cannot avoid visiting the volcano. Etna, like all active volcanoes, known for its majesty, is the meeting point between black and white, Paradise and Hell, beauty and terror.
It is, in fact, the highest active volcano in Europe, and its landscape is one of the most interesting natural attractions in the region. The craters of Etna are a real wonder. The colors are extraordinary, and the feeling of warmth of lava stones under your feet is a unique sensation.
While shooting a frame, a photographer manages to subtract a piece of the world; my project “Vulcano” was born from this desire to tell photographically how individuals live intimately through this experience in such an immense space.
‘Our gaze is lost in imagining this volcano in action, its power, and our nothingness in front of it; it is magical, energetic, and tiring. Here you really realize how much nature makes us face our limits.’
How did your perception differ from the poetic presentation of Etna by Patrick Brydon you refer to as your inspiration?
This volcano is something great and exciting. The beauty of nature is unquestionable, just as Patrick Brydone claims, and I recognize myself in his words: being able to feel his thought so closely is an attractive and suggestive feeling. Etna has a particular charm; many times, it transmits restlessness, and it gives security and serenity. Just as it's described in his text,
“Here you observe a gulf, that formerly threw out torrents of fire, now covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, and from an object of terror become one of delight.”
the landscape changes from lunar to more typically mountainous with different colors and atmospheres. In this place, where everything seems petrifying, once again, nature does its best, and plants and flowers soar from the black and hot earth.
What was fascinating for you in the exploration of the volcano or the fact that it’s an active volcano?
Mount Etna left me amazed; I felt like I was on another planet. Nature offers a palette of colors determined by the various minerals in the soil. In addition to what you see and hear, you feel a strong sensation of its ungovernable greatness. Tons of solidified lava forge mysterious and enchanting views. Our gaze is lost in imagining this volcano in action, its power, and our nothingness in front of it; it is magical, energetic, and tiring. Here you really realize how much nature makes us face our limits.
‘I look for beauty in everyday gestures. Photography, for me, is an instinct and an act of spontaneity; everything is very fast but, above all, extremely natural.’
This series even more than others present to our view people, the travelers to the sight. In your work, you are a distant observer, never intruding to people who happen to be in the same place and at the same time with you, as if the camera is a bird who happens to perceive the scene. What is the atmosphere you work to create in your photography?
I look for beauty in everyday gestures. Photography, for me, is an instinct and an act of spontaneity; everything is very fast but, above all, extremely natural. Much of my photographic work is related now to my travels: it's a little premeditated. There is no precise theme to develop, I follow what the place must tell and reveal to me. I leave it to my eyes to tell a story, without restrictions, capturing gestures, geometries, and movements close to me. It is simply being in the right place at the right time. The landscape has always been a great and important source of inspiration. The spaces, the colors, the sounds, every place is full of special memories and stories to tell.
My subjects are, in fact, open to the imagination of the viewer. I like to trigger in the viewer that particular mechanism of fantasy, that of wondering how were the physiognomies and expressions of the protagonists behind us, their thoughts, and how they continued their journey after our fleeting and unsuspecting encounter. In this case, the local people, and even more, the visitors, are very small, so I wanted to represent them. Like a curious nullity of colors, smells, and sensations of a land bubbling from the inside. More than any other photograph of mine, here, the human element is really a silhouette, a wandering figure. I see them begin their walk with the premise of taking a mystical journey, perhaps just to end up discussing everyday things.
What are you researching today? What should we expect from you this year?
This has been a very unusual year; the days spent at home have allowed me to reorganize all the projects that I have left behind in recent years for various reasons. I set up a small photographic studio, at home, in an old unused room, a sort of temporary shelter where I spend my days among flashes, rolls, and soothing background music.
Anyway, my next work will be something totally different.
I want to try to get out of my comfort zone, and I would like to go into an intimate and very personal story, where in addition to my narrative, the subjects involved have the opportunity to tell about themselves in the first person. It will be a very complex and deep path, and I am taking all the time I need to develop and digest it in the best possible way. But, because of superstition, I prefer not to anticipate anything.
