Euro Rotelli: Composite Landscapes

Euro Rotelli is an Italian photographer born in Tuscany. He is known for his experimentation with the medium of photography and his extremely diverse approach to it. Apart from digital photography, research has often brought him to the use of different analogue films and materials, to experiment with techniques such as transfer, emulsion lift, manipulations and montage, painting and collage. His inventiveness and ambition to perfect his artistic practice enable him to transform the objective reality into an intimate personal language. His work has been published in various reviews and international magazines and has received domestic and international recognition.

In his newest works, Euro Rotelli turns away from his preferred subject – the body, and delves deep into the theme of landscape. At first sight, the winter country scenery of his newest collages appears barren and desolate, but visual layers uncover a deeper meaning. As the rips in added layers of paper suggest, the works are collages of different techniques of developing the same motif. The works appear in shades of stark black and white, rich sepia and fading grey, and are framed by brushstrokes of emulsion, which constantly evoke the medium of photography and Rotelli's mastery of it. With these visual layers, the works also reveal multiple levels of interpretation and remind us that there is more than one way to view an image.

This effect is additionally emphasised by a series of polaroids depicting scenes of nature, which function in contrast to, but also in conversation with, the collages. If the collages are a way to illustrate a landscape in hibernation, quietly awaiting spring, the trees reaching out for sunlight – the polaroids create a soft, pink-hued alternative. Fields of wheat, budding trees and awakening branches are alluded to in this series of large format polaroids, which outline the idea of spring to come and create a dialogue with the landscape collages. With these two bodies of work, Rotelli presents not only an astute sensibility to his natural environment, but also a mastery of photography as a technically demanding medium.