Alone Together
Martino Marangoni
The Eriskay Connection
English
Hardcover
102 pages
240 x 300 mm
2014
ISBN 8898120478
In Florence, where Marangoni grew up, the division of public and private space was definite. Actions and behaviours were not the same behind closed doors as they were outside in the piazza where everything was noticed and commented on. When Marangoni moved to New York in the seventies, he was struck by how different the relationship among individuals in a public area was to what he had experienced in Florence. How indifferent people were to each other. For the first time he felt free from being judged, but also free to watch other people. For children it is natural to stare at other people, until they are told that it is rude. Marangoni learned to be more discreet. He is a people watcher and photography enables him to have a subject to look at, stare at, if you like. Pointing a finger and pointing a camera are related gestures, drawing the attention of others. When taking photographs Marangoni avoids eye contact to capture the private inner expressions of individuals as they move/live in today’s often unfriendly public places. Marangoni has come to appreciate contemporary architecture the beauty of many of these cathedral-like buildings, designed for maximum visibility and even transparency; the glass walls which separate public and private space have reduced our chances of privacy, taught us to ignore those around us and to expect to be left alone. Often urban architecture today seems to have ignored the need for ‘inner privacy’ by creating spaces that are isolating, even menacing. The individual is ironically placed in a situation of being alone together.
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About the Artist
Martino Marangoni was born in Florence in 1950, where he currently lives. Martino Marangoni’s work has appeared in solo and group shows in Italy and abroad, including Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome, Paris, Toulouse, Arles, Portland, San Francisco and New York. His photographs are in the collections of Calcografia Nazionale in Rome; Museo della Fotografia Contemporanea, in Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, the Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliotèque Nationale de France in Paris; the FRAC archive in Lyon; la Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; Camera Works in New York; CCA, Canadian Centre for Architecture; MAXXI, Rome.
martinomarangoni.com
About the Publisher
The Eriskay Connection is a Dutch studio for book design and an independent publisher. They focus on contemporary storytelling at the intersection of photography, research and writing. In close collaboration with authors they make books as autonomous bodies of work that provide them with new and necessary insights into the world around them. Their editions are mainly offset printed and bound in The Netherlands and they strive to work with local producers and sustainable materials as much as possible.
eriskayconnection.com
