30.07.11

Photographer - Felipe Pagani

Photographer - Felipe Pagani
I stumbled upon Felipe's work completely by accident, but was immediately struck by the obscene theatricality of his photographs. The kind of personalities he chooses to immortalise are the ones you find in de Sade's novels, Dali's biographies or, less romantically, on the fringes of society. Identities, both social and personal, play a huge role in his depictions. In fact, the photographer himself once noted that he considers his portraits a failure unless he feels he has managed to capture his subjects' true and unique identity.

But what is one's true and unique identity? That's another question his images ask, although perhaps unwittingly. In doing so, they absorb you and transfer you into a world of rare decadence, hedonism and sensuality. I was indeed amazed to realise that the more I looked at his photographs, the more I felt like I could taste them, each of them bringing up different sensual memories in my mind. I could have been annoyed by his 'mind-games', but I was fascinated instead.  Funnily, whilst I love so many photographers for 'just' taking photographs, I also love Felipe for 'not just' taking them. Perhaps it is the extreme, the excess (or excessive absence) that attracts me in both cases. Excessive, as a matter of fact, is a good word for describing his vision.

Images by Felipe Pagani

Posted by Natascha Chtena

Tags: fashion fashion156 daily blog photographer photography felipe pagani