BEYOND THE BARRIERS OF REALITY: VITO MARIA’S METAPHYSICAL ANTHOLOGY

Talking to Vito is immersing yourself in his reality, made of disruptive visions. Born and raised in Paestum, he has been able to transpose into his photographs the contrast between the past and the future, between the collective image and the personal one.

The artist's words give us back an idea of ​​a shot that goes beyond the formal definition: every photograph, for Vito, is research; with his projects, we can grasp a new language, conceived by him to read the present through its most impalpable expressions.

The artist does not want to represent what is evident to the eyes. The edges of the streets, the walls covered with posters and flyers, the graffiti in the subway, the lost tickets, the scratches on the cars, the screens in the stations can communicate a reality that is often avoided or ignored - that makes us rich, because these things are imbued with experience.

Vito searches for inspiration behind every corner, every object, every gesture.

Thanks to the images that he gives us of his suburbs, we can stop, observe and reflect.

The concept of "archaeology of the present" is one of the keys to understanding his work: a reflection on how the signs left by our passage in the world - from graffiti on the walls to the invisible ruins of the cities - can tell stories that go beyond the visible.

In this interview, Vito takes us into his world, made of places, bodies and visions. From his province to the frenzy of the cities, from Japan to Milan, we explore the journey of an artist who documents reality to understand it and, at the same time, transform it into something new - or that re-emerges.

“That’s how I started shooting: as an act of documentation — something I still do today, and which we can define as an archaeology of the present.”

“Archaeology of the present”: this definition of your work is fascinating. Would you like to tell me more about what it means to you? What is an archaeology, in your imagination? Is there something you try to bring to light, with your work?

The places we live in tell us about our present through signs - sometimes imperceptible. Over time I began to document everyday life, focusing on the recurrences and traces that emerge from them. The edges of the streets, the walls covered with posters and flyers, the writings in the subway, the lost tickets, the scratches on the cars, the screens in the stations: these evidence of the present tell us about our culture and our passage. The streets keep a human dimension, impalpable and constant.

Speaking about yourself: what is the first visual memory that brings you back to the desire to tell the world and its transformations through photography? Do you have a childhood memory that, even today, brings you back to your sensitivity in wanting to document the world?

I believe that the common thread that connects my childhood and then adolescence to my current research is the personal need for discovery and non-homologation. The province, as well as sometimes cities, propose simplified models, which we could define as “survival strategies”, reflected in the common social ideals of belonging, family and work. Photography allows us to investigate, analyse, and sometimes escape the reality we live in. Photographing, today, for me means documenting, tracing new scenarios and at the same time, opening myself up to a multitude of experiences and existences.

I like to think of childhood as a time when we are in direct contact with our instinct, without membranes. I believe that the deepest roots of our being are there; they manifest themselves there, and that is where we begin to want to express them. As a child, for example, I loved listening to people's stories and transcribing them - or repeating them in my mind, creating anthologies.

What is there in your Paestum that is not or cannot be found elsewhere? In returning to Paestum, after years in Milan and Paris, what have you found and what, instead, have you lost of yourself?

The image I am tied to and that I have in my mind is that of the huge, cultivated fields, the noise of the sprinklers and the cicadas in the fields in summer. The religious statues, the ruins, the temples, and the sunsets of such an intense red. Connected to this world, life flows with different rhythms from the city and with a form of happiness that I personally visualize in abandonment, understood as not ardently desiring anything.

Cities, on the other hand, are supported by many more superstructures. The greatest loss of not living them is for me in giving up the stimuli, the people and the experiences that derive from them.

How do you think our humanity is changing? And, therefore, how do you think our society is transforming? How do you feel, in this overwhelming wave of transformations?

I believe that, in our deepest essence, we are the same as always - whereas in a state of nature, humans have always been driven by the need to satisfy their desires. Technology will have an increasingly significant impact on our lives. And I don’t think this is a negative point; on the contrary, I see it as a potential factor for change. I hope for a future in which the means of production can be increasingly automated, and that this can foster greater class consciousness.

You state, with full knowledge of the facts, that social networks and the pervasiveness of technology in our lives also impact our cities, and the way we perceive our spaces. I would say that I agree with you.

I look at my reality and how the province where I grew up has influenced my growth and nourished my vision of things. As a child, as a teenager — and still today — I feel the weight of my spaces in my maturation, both as a person and as a writer.

In your opinion, how has the concept of “place” changed over time — and in this immense space that characterizes us?

Social media influence and have influenced not only the perception, but also the shape of the spaces we live in. Just think of how, in a few years, trends have impacted the way we live in cities. The most obvious example is that of many historic hospitality venues (restaurants, hotels, etc.), absorbed, codified and transformed into standardized and potentially replicable products. All this gradually contributes to a loss of identity and to the market orientation increasingly towards globalized and mass consumption logics.

We live in a reality that seems endless and without borders. But is this a correct perception, in your opinion? Maybe belonging to everything makes us a little disconnected from everything — and therefore not really involved in anything?

We are experiencing a real paradigm shift: digital reality has taken the place of physical reality, while the real becomes a simple glue of the digital. We are interested in discovery and experience in the digital world, often more than in the real one, which appears (or perhaps really is) less interesting to us.

Your hometown is Paestum, we have already said that. How has this place influenced your growth, your vision, your expression? Describe to me a vivid memory of a corner of Paestum that you carry with you, like a familiar warmth, like a deep trace of your experience.

I remember days spent hanging out with my friends. Pool halls, PlayStations and soccer shoes, fancy scooters. We wanted nothing more. What we mattered was simply existing.

Tell me about “Provincial Youth” and everything it allowed you to relive. How do you feel, today, looking back at a work with such evocative power?

PY is the portrait of what remains of my adolescent identity, of what shaped me and, at times, conditioned me in life. It is iconographic research of many of the elements - that I consider at the same time personal, generational and representative of the territory in which I grew up.

I would really like you to tell me about a little Vito; tell me about a memory in which you can see yourself, from outside, in your city.

Vito was a child who lived in a small, protected environment, made up of few people. I have always spent a lot of time observing and understanding what surrounded me and then as soon as I had access to the internet I slowly searched for and reconstructed an alternative reality. The reality I lived seemed so limited and finite and the internet showed me the possibility of living something else beyond the boundaries I knew.

What is your idea on the bodies that populate the places of the world? Let's talk about this and reflect together, also referring to your works or inspirations.

Bodies are directly connected to our identities and thus conveyed to the context in which we grow and live. Our will is only partial in the formation of individual identity; I believe in the profound impact and legacy of the economic and social system in which we are immersed.

What role does technology play in your work? Is it an enemy, a tool or a subject to photograph?

I am in favour of any form of technological implementation that can make our lives more accessible and easier. I find artificial intelligence models and their functioning in many fields interesting. However, I continue to be fascinated by the material and physical experience of creation, even in photography. For many projects I continue to shoot on film and medium format: I completely love the process, the times and the limits that this choice imposes on me at a design level.

“Places that refer only to other signs, emptied of any real referent”: tell me about this feeling, about the value of today’s cities. Have you managed to immortalize this status through some of your works?

In many photographic series I start from the idea that the cities and the space we live in no longer correspond to an original reality, but to a series of images that can replace or merge with reality. Thus reality, image and representation mix, modifying our perception and the way we experience the urban environment.

Kurata’s book “Flash Up” has deeply influenced you. How important are other people’s inspirations for you? Is there anyone you consider a mentor among your inspirations?

Seiji Kurata’s work is immense and specifically - Flash Up - is a book that tells of desire, rebellion, life and death of a Japan crossed by profound social and cultural transformations; it is a work of great depth and inspiration, which has directly impacted my photographic reading. Among the great Japanese photographers, I am also fascinated by the work of Nobuyoshi Araki, Daidō Moriyama and Eikoh Hosoe, especially in the experimentation and in the process of analysis and documentation of the contemporary.

How important is it for you to research and study pre-existing, recent or past art forms to enrich your vision?

I like the process of reading and research. What interests me most is understanding how others have lived, faced and told their existence.

Tell me about “C3llulose” and this immense archival work. Where did this project come from?

In February 2024 I left for a month in Japan. There I had the opportunity to explore the streets and document them, to delve into every visible aspect of a culture that permeates society beyond the mainstream narrative. I have always been fascinated by the printed fruition of photography, so researching in various archives and libraries I came across many old editions, including Araki's early works, I remember seeing for the first time - Oh! Nippon - one of his very rare and first commercial works. The idea was to collect and then make all this accessible to more people, hence the idea of ​​creating a project focused on rare and subcultural books.

Vito Maria | C3llulose

What have you found lately that has inspired you a lot?

The catalogue of “I Need Art Like I Need God” by Tracey Emin and I recently re-watched “Taxi Driver” by Scorsese. What an incredible film.

What fascinates you in the photographers you choose to archive and share with C3?

There are so many things that fascinate me about them; perhaps most of all the courage, the perseverance and sometimes the evidence of how intense their life is or has been and their talent is great.

Is it more a question of language, obsession, or rejection of the mainstream?

For me it is more attributable to the desire for discovery. Many photographers have opened our existence to new worlds and reflections, offering us visions and ways of living alternative to our daily reality.

Let's talk about your latest works, which also see collaborations with other artists. In wanting to freeze bodies, expressions, movements and identities in the moment: how is the relationship between the person taking the photo and the person in front of the camera configured for you?

Over time, I have had the opportunity to shoot with artists, especially those from the music scene. The added value of collaborations lies in being able to work with a well-defined imagery and bring it into new storylines or, in any case, to offer a personal and interpretative vision of their world.

“My aim is to reclaim, exaggerate, and play with that aesthetic in order to create new storylines: fragments of reality and intimate narratives interwoven with the unreal.”

What do you look for when you photograph a body?

Intercepting and drawing a line between identity and representation and building the narrative on that limit. I try to convey their energy but also their vulnerabilities and their reality. I don’t want bodies to be idealized, desirable or trivialized.

Do you already have an image in mind before shooting it? How difficult is it not to try to impose your vision on the person on the other side of the lens? Are you able to allow the subject of your work to flow? How important is the human relationship that is established in this?

Being photographed is an act of trust and abandonment, it means entrusting your image and therefore your identity. My vision is what guides the work and what interfaces with the subjects I photograph. The human relationship is fundamental, every figure involved in a production contributes in a fundamental way to the result.

Do you think there are points of contact between your previous and current works?

They are works united by the desire to search for a trace and give a personal reading of the reality we live in.

You said you wanted to play with the idealized aesthetics of the media. Where, for you, is the thin line between criticism and fascination, between denunciation and attraction?

The boundary is blurred, but I am more interested in the analysis and iconography of that imagery. My will is to tell new stories, even if sometimes playing with that language. I like to place myself on the boundary between reality and representation.

In a world that lives on instantaneity, you seem to want to stop time. Is it a form of nostalgia or resistance?

A form of testimony.

What are you looking for, every time you shoot?

Each project addresses different needs. Sometimes I shoot to collect and understand what surrounds me; other times photography is a way to open a dialogue or tell a personal story.