The Italian photographer Giuseppe Mastromatteo’s first solo show in Turkey can be viewed at C.A.M. Gallery between the dates 5-28 February, 2015. In order to have a more comprehensive look at Giuseppe Mastromatteo’s oeuvre, the solo show “Homogenic” will include some works from the artist’s earlier series; “Pre-Indepensense” (2007) and “Indepensense” (2009-2012).

“In his new series of works entitled “Homogenic”, Giuseppe Mastromatteo presents a sequence of eight faces, or rather, a rhythmic arrangement of eight contemplative gazes that maintain a fixed frontal pose. The visual flow is achieved with the use of subtle and harmonious dimensions. The impression is of a lifelike défilé that is created in front of the viewer out of nothing, out of nowhere, sans background.

A subtle sense of wonder underlies the entire sequence of photographs, which deviates significantly from every close representation of the human race. In fact, the temporal scan that delineates each image could continue indefinitely, being so perfectly designed and structured as to give the impression of an inner metamorphosis…The expressions, colours and features transmute, or modify themselves, as if they themselves were the support of a deception that the photography interprets and skilfully showcases.

Mastromatteo finds his extemporal inspiration in the dynamics of the fixed gaze.

The eyes of his subjects are always the same. Oriental eyes that are narrow, dark and penetrating, despite the fact that they never stop staring into that emptiness that terminates in our contemporaneity and leaves behind it an immense sense of infinity. The idea expressed is of a flat, indeed homogeneous, vision that derives from the compulsive syndrome of the cyber-environment where everything is at our fingertips, easily accessible and ‘ownable’, but without a conduit of real understanding between us and the object…

Perhaps the real subject of these portraits is precisely the feeling of emptiness, that pervasive sentiment that generates discomfort, lack of impetus and expressiveness. Mastromatteo’s faces become a metaphor, and a critic, of a situation that generates a lack of intellectuality, whilst the black background of the photographs seems increasingly like the cultural context that endorses any difference of thought. Thus, “Homogenic” expresses itself not only as an image but as an experience of life that is unreservedly contemporary, which opens a new chapter in the author’s investigation…

Lastly, if on the one hand “Homegenic” considers the use of photography and its extreme manipulation as the key to a world of images that it subtly grasps and conditions, on the other, by contrast, it boldly influences the reflection on the medium and its infinite expressive capabilities.” – Denis Curti*

* Denis Curti is a photography critic, journalist, curator of photo exhibitions and expert of the photography market. He is vice-president and director of institutional relations of Forma – Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, director of the Milan branch of Contrasto photo agency, and director of the photography and visual design master program, created in association with NABA, since 2006.