Nyeja II, First Study

Nyeja II, First Study, is the digital version of an analogue image I had produced as part of a series of slides created in the '80s and lost in the early '90s. In 2014 I unexpectedly came across the original slide and I decided to use it as the starting point of a new work. My main intent was to bridge my old passion for silver gelatin print with my new interest for digital imagery and conceptual media processes.

Nyeja was my first nude and at that time my approach was mainly formalistic, looking for the sculptural qualities that Nyeja’s graceful and strong body evoked. I was particularly interested in the linearity, tonality, and material texture of my pictures, which were carefully hand toned using selenium. Nyeja and I worked for around five years, before life and AIDS pushed him away. We had followed almost daily rituals in which he would come to my loft when the sun was hitting my windows in the right way. Then his dance would begin, under natural light and the focused lens of my camera.

The new study merges a sensibility for the material quality and depth of silver prints with the characteristic pixelation of contemporary digital photos. This conceptual shift doesn't alter the content of the image, but radically alters our perception of it, as a fluid media form that transcend time.