This photographic story is a personal exploration of loss, separation, heaven and hell. Inspired by Pirandello’s play “Six Characters in Search of an Author”, Majoli elaborates on the notion that we are all “actors of life”.
Divided into three chapters; chapter one, Persona, consists of individual black and white photographic portraits, whilst chapter two, Libera Me, is a surrealist composition of Latvian landscapes, with which Majoli explores the idea of paradise. The third chapter, Lacrimosa, is in colour, and emerges from Majoli’s exploration of the memorials of the genocide in Rwanda, and their associations with the idea of hell.
This large format book focuses on the first chapter, Persona. In the twenty portraits only the face is visible, lit with a light that always shines from above, as if it were a divine light. Dramatic in nature, they suggest the notion of judgement, the question of what awaits us after we die and the idea that we are all going to be judged on the day of our death.
Alex Majoli, born 1971 in Ravenna, Italy, joined the f45 studio in his native city, working alongside Daniele Casadio when 15 years old. He has been a member of the photographic agency Magnum since 2001. He lives and works in Milan and New York. His first book was ‘Leros’ (Trolley, 2003)
