The beauty and power of pure light entering the camera. A project that recalls Claude Monet’s study of the influence of light on objects. Stefano Galli brings his own light studies to the extreme, focusing on the sky and its myriad variations.
In “80 SKIES”, the protagonists of Galli’s frames are airplanes or – better said – the small shapes that fly over our heads daily. Because of their height in the sky and the sunlight by which they are surrounded, the shapes Galli captures become something entirely different than just giant devices that move hundreds of human beings.
In many cases, the planes are insignificant elements when compared to the magnificence of the heavens. In fact, the eye of the viewer becomes lost in the contemplation of the colors, in the totality of the photographs; looking at these images, the impression of hearing the deafening noise or the usual imagery of the airplane is not perceived.
Fascinated by movement and travel, Stefano Galli dedicates this project to the aircraft for the purpose of studying the sky. The result is a creative pictorial but also a tiring study that begins in the early hours of dawn and ends with the fall of the sun. Pushing 35mm negatives to the extreme through a 90mm lens, he lets the film be flooded by the infinite heavenly hue, the changing colors of the horizon sometimes grayish, or yellow and pink, the broad spectrum of colors that characterize the sky. The intensity of the light seems to struggle with the film speed, so the photographs are characterized by a thick grain that gives the picture a three-dimensional effect, as if it had been given a brushstroke. A photographic project that shows the endless variations of the light system in which we live.
Written by M.F. Palmerio
Artist short bio:
Stefano Galli was born 1981 in Italy, earned a BA in cinematography from the University of Turin. After graduating he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he worked with director Lars von Trier at Zentropa Entertainment. During these years he attended Fatamorgana, the Danish school of art photography. Stefano is currently living in Los Angeles, California.
