Giuseppe Mastromatteo

Giuseppe Mastromatteo’s portraits bring poetic Surrealism back to life. They could be collages, but take advantage of the subtlety of digital technology to reproduce humanity in impossible and illusory dimensions. Ripped faces, eyes and ears which run through hands, are the centre of an imaginary truth that draws inspiration from the visions of Magritte and Man Ray to land inside a new visual synthesis with stylistic patterns representing the most contemporary photography of our time, in a continuous overlapping of visual languages that live in the world of advertising and genuine research. Backgrounds are white, the light homogeneous: nothing averts the detailed expressions in the characters of this silent and fascinating theatre of the absurd. Transfigured bodies, pierced and lacerated do not show any form of violence, but instead pose solemnly in front of the photographer’s lens, beyond any suffering. No expression exists in these faces, there is no tension, but rather a sense of timelessness that leaves us open to reflect about the uncertainty of this third millennium. The observer’s eye is immediately attracted by the extravagance of these creatures, which at the same time produces a true sense of discomfort and uneasiness. Mastromatteo intervenes in the interior sense of beauty. The models he chooses for his images bring to the stage classic canons of harmony and equilibrium creating a complex dialectict between fascination and repulsion.

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