The Hidden Place project consists of sixteen photographs taken using the cyanotype technique. The number of the photographs refers to the short runic series (or Scandinavian series), which consists precisely of sixteen runes. It is important and necessary to clarify that the Runes are Gods and each of them is a complex world of its own. In this project, I am not going to deal with their spiritual value as I do not have the appropriate knowledge. Mine is a personal attempt to visually interpret the meaning that can be symbolically attributed to them based on what I have learnt from reading the book Le Rune e gli Dei del Nord by Mario Polia, in which the author himself states that the content of the book is also an attempt at interpreting based on the study of common documents and cultures.
The photographs depict landscapes and portraits, in the latter the subject’s face is concealed with various expedients such as body positions and objects positioned in such a way as to hide the person portrayed. The covered face is intrinsic to the meaning of rune and this makes it secret. The portraits will not only refer to the Runes because of what has just been said and the symbolic meaning of each of them, in some the corresponding shape will be rendered visually and will determine how the subject will be portrayed. The entire series will have a visual rigour typical of Nordic photographic productions.
The decision to use the cyanotype technique is determined by the contrast in the portraits in which the element of closure, characterised by the choice to conceal the subject, contrasts with the openness of natural sunlight, necessary for the implementation of this printing method. In addition, the cold colour of Prussian blue, typical of this process, in contrast to the white of the areas not exposed to light, is reminiscent of a Nordic winter landscape, characterised by fjords whose banks are distinguished by high cliffs.
The title is a homage to Björk’s song of the same name.
