ANTIPERSONNEL

Ora conosciamo l'esistenza di centinaia di diverse tipologie di mine antiuomo e sappiamo come la varietà dei modelli, le sembianze, le loro forme ed il design siano incredibili. Proprio perché Dallaporta ha fotografato questi oggetti nello stesso modo in cui un fotografo pubblicitario immortalerebbe un flacone di shampoo, giunge ad esaltare la bellezza di questi oggetti pur rimanendo totalmente neutrale nel suo approccio. Trattasi di un trucco così intelligente che a malapena ci si rende conto che I'abbia messo in atto.

One of photography’s great strength is its ability to catalogue and record the world in which we live. The simplicity and clarity that photography offers has both commercial and artistic possibilities. In more recent years there has been a trend towards documentary photographers isolating one particular aspect of society and exploring this in great detail. Dallaporta presents the most chilling example of this genre by photographing antipersonnel landmines. These strange ugly objects also have a certain disturbing beauty to them. We hear about the damage that landmines inflict on innocent victims long after the purpose of their planting has lapsed. They of course are hidden underground before exploding. I had never seen a landmine in real life or in a photograph until discovering Dallaporta’s images. It was a revelation. We now learn that hundreds of types of landmines exist and a variety of appearance, shape and design is incredible. Because Dallaporta has photographed these objects in the way an advertising photographer might render a shampoo bottle, he glorifies these objects and yet appears totally neutral in his approach. It is most a clever trick, so much so that we hardly notice he has done it.
Martin Parr