PROJECT “HUGS. The Tree Calling”
Fine Art Prints of Luca Zampini
“Luca looks at that bark. Do you see how beautiful she is?” I will have been 5 or 6 years old. yes, I think it all started there.
And besides, I’ve loved trees since I was a child. I often climbed on it and played among their fronds.
BUT WHAT IS “HUGS. The Tree Calling” ?
For me it is a life project not aimed at creating exhibitions.
It’s an emotion that I can’t hold back, that will continue as long as I get a chance to look for new trees
MONUMENTAL TREES?
Not only. Sometimes I look for them inside lists of “monumental trees” or I let myself be guided by photos seen on the web.
But I often meet them by accident while travelling.
The latter – “the foundlings” – as I like to call them, can be seemingly insignificant trees, because they are not particularly old or important in bearing, history or location. But for me they are unique
MONUMENTAL TREES?
Not only. Sometimes I look for them inside lists of “monumental trees” or I let myself be guided by photos seen on the web.
But I often meet them by accident while travelling.
The latter – “the foundlings” – as I like to call them, can be seemingly insignificant trees, because they are not particularly old or important in bearing, history or location. But for me they are unique
A SPECIAL HUG
I can travel hundreds of kilometers to find a monumental tree, but not always I feel then the desire to embrace it.
I like trees all, but only for some I perceive something so strong that I can’t resist their call.
I feel their energy, I feel indescribable emotions. I am kidnapped as if by magic, it is a Magic …
NOT ALWAYS
I’m selective, I can’t photograph trees that I feel suffering: city trees, for example, because they are not free, or trees in the woods, because I can’t perceive their individuality
NOT ALWAYS
I’m selective, I can’t photograph trees that I feel suffering: city trees, for example, because they are not free, or trees in the woods, because I can’t perceive their individuality
I like the final effect that comes out:
highlighting at the same time sharp parts and others totally rarefied, allows me to offer the reader the opportunity to see in the work things that I had not noticed.
I leave it free to go beyond the limits of the traditional photo, which can be technically perfect, but it is and remains only descriptive.
THE IDEA
The fundamental idea of my work is to translate into photography the feelings I feel.
I don’t just want to reproduce a real image. It took me a long time to figure it out, but now I’m sure it all makes sense.
THE IDEA
The fundamental idea of my work is to translate into photography the feelings I feel.
I don’t just want to reproduce a real image.
It took me a long time to figure it out, but now I’m sure it all makes sense.
Today I can say that every tree of mine is a story
and that I created with him a special bond
—-
Luca Zampini
In summary, these are the 5 fundamental points of the mental dialogue that I start with the trees, the keys to get to the embrace:
FIND OUT WHICH ONES
- I’m here for you!
– With this statement, I want to reassure the tree and make him understand that the love I feel for him is the “light” which I will photograph it with. Having “burnt lights”, as they say in photography, is considered a mistake. I don’t care. Almost never in my photos there are “full blacks”.
- I want to get closer to you and be by your side!
– I think about how many times in my life I took pictures from afar, maybe sitting in the car because it was raining or cold, and I wasn’t getting close. Today, regarding those photos, I realized that staying away was a nonsense, because it did not allow me to get in touch with the tree. Now, I take approaching shots and my feeling takes shape in semi-transparency around the hair.
- I want to spend more time with you!
– In contrast to the photos taken previously, hasty shots no longer interest me. Staying longer with the tree without photographing it has become a wonderful and unanswerable necessity to get in tune and thus establish an empathic relationship. Spending time in his company regenerates me and gives me a huge charge. When I walk away, I turn to look at him again and feel the satisfaction of giving him the attention he deserves.
- I’d like to protect you!
– It took me a long time to figure out how to achieve this with photography. In the end, I realized that I could do this by moving around the tree and taking pictures of it only when the affective transfert had reached its peak. In that moment, in my mind the creative process gives shape to the final image. I only make little changes before printing.
Still, it’s as if, by doing so, I wrap him in a blanket of love and can really protect him.
- I want to hug you!
– I physically embrace the tree and, at the same time, I fix the moment by framing the bark and fronds in the backlight. These overlapping shots will light up in the clearest parts of the final image.
I only have one self-portrait I’ve recovered from.