06.14.12

On June 14, 2012, DROME reaches its eight years, and is ready to celebrate in the most exciting way: at the 43rd edition ART BASEL where it would be glad to present at its own booth (n. Z/26) the leatest of its achievements: DROME 20, or rather 224 pages and the most alive of the themes, Catastrophe.

Der Rerum Natura at page 62

Some months ago I was called from Drome Magazine to portray 5 Terrifying Disaster in History:

The Minoan Eruption, 1.600 BC

The Drought of Central Asia, 300 AD

The Black Death, 1348-1350

The Lisbon Earthquake,  November 1, 1755

The Yellow River Flood, 1931

To stage these Catastrophes was a great experience that gave me the opportunity, studying more about them,  to enter in the psychological and ambivalent sense of awe, involving both the threat of extinction and the attempt to keep it at bay, because, most of the disasters in history are sometimes referred to as “acts of God”.

It’s strange like many unfortunately events happened in my life during the period I directed the photo shooting .. really bad things that pushed me in a sort of personal catastrophe, but all is finished then, and a new and renewed life started. You cannot escape from History, neither from your personal history and after a crisis or disaster there’s a new beginning.

Let the disaster speak in you, as Maurice Blanchot wrote in his L’Ecriture du désastre.

I want dedicate the following 5 posts of my blog at these 5 themes of Catastrophe.. just a short resume of my research.