http://fernandomaselli.com/en/

Fernando Maselli Was born in Benos Aires in 1978, he first stuided Fine Art and then later moved to Madrid, where he began his career working for major advertising agencies in Spain, shooting professional assignments for brands like Coca Cola, Mercedes Benz, Vodafone, Toyota, BBVA. These works earned him numerous awards at international festivals such as Cannes advertising. The photographic work of Fernando Maselli explores different aspects of the formalism, deepening the aesthetic and concept as core values.

In 2008 he started collaborating with Madriz magazine, with which he developed a series of projects that illustrate the front covers and inside pages of 15 issues, projects with which he later on edited a book. In these series, with Madrid as a common feature, Maselli develops his particular vision of the city, where the symmetry, composition and light, become its most important elements.

Parallel to his commercial work, Maselli has developed a career in the world of contemporary art, being currently represented by the prestigious Luis Adelantado Gallery. His latest projects are closely related to the natural landscape, where through documentation and conceptualization processes, he seeks to captivate the viewer in a moral and sentimental reflection on nature.

In response to the title ‘political landscapes’ I have decided to explore the politics within my family, my intention if to explore things such as illness, culture and origins within my family, I want to explore my relationship with different members of my family and how harsh circumstances have effected the structure of my family and the individuals. I plan to do a variety of shoots in a variety of different locations, for my first shoot I am planning to gather a variety of items that have cultural meaning to my family and photograph them in the setting of a studio, my plan is to create very similar images with each item by placing them all the same way on a stool or platform and using the same angles and lighting for all the images .I plan to do my second shoot in the almost empty home of my grandparents who recently passed away, I would like to try and capture the emptiness of losing two close family members and the remains of what the left behind. For my third shoot I am planing on taking a variety of images when I visit my grandparents in France, I want to capture the joy of the house but also the sadness, I want to capture how beautiful the house is and all the memories in it but also how it is a struggle for my grandfather and the rest of my family to deal with my grandmother who is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, I want to try and portray what it is like to lose a family member, even though they are still there the people around them feel like they are gone and that is what it want to portray in my photos.

After finding out the title for this project ‘Political Landscape’ I started to gather images that reflected my initial thoughts. Ideas of global and local issues came up, equal rights movements, economy, development and environmental.

I also created a mind map to help me develop these thoughts further.

Documentary Approach

Through a documentary approach to this theme I would be interested to tell realist stories significant and relevant to history and historical events that affect us now as well as everyday life. I would mainly focus in on the contemporary issues surrounding a particular area and portray this to the audience. Documentary photography generally relates to longer term projects with a more complex story line which intend to explore with possible such projects as the human destruction to our earth while photojournalism concerns more breaking news stories. I will also use this approach which can often overlap with documentary photography with its close relationship to the news media and therefore political landscapes too.

Despite the fact that documentary and photo journalist approaches often will focus mainly on the narrative as a pose to an aesthetically pleasing image, I will ensure to incorporate the most interesting images as well as conveying these stories. My style of photography is more focused on producing aesthetically pleasing images and therefore i intend on  carrying this on through the different approaches to photography that I explore. This will mean that my personal photography style is portrayed through my work although i may be exploring other styles and photographers.

Creative Approach

Through a creative approach I would explore photo manipulation to exaggerate political issues and make the viewer clearly aware of them. I think this approach could work with any theme but in particular I have the idea of exploring environmental issues. As well as creating images powerful within its composition, lighting and coloring  I want to explore using Photoshop to create more abstract and interesting images which cannot be seen in real life.  Using photo manipulation will help to present my conceptual ideas a lot stronger.

Mood Board

Local Example

An example of political landscape in Jersey is the current situation and debate surrounding the  building of new hospital. This has caused a lot of controversy with regards to where the building will be built and how it will affect the community as well as the patients that are in the current hospital. A lot of money has been spent on the research and planning of the new building however to the public nothing has been achieved. This has caused outrage as people believe that money is being wasted which could be used to help the community and Jersey as a whole.

International Example

An international example of a political landscape is the ongoing conflict and war based in Afghanistan. The US-led war in Afghanistan was a response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on America and has been continued since.

This research of political landscapes on a local and international level has helped me develop a better understanding of a political landscape. To me, a political landscape is any issue or story that can be related to by the community. It is all the issues that are presented through the media and through the government whether that be on a personal level e.g. race, disability, gender or as a community e.g. environmental change, war, human rights.