4th of October 2020, the Inhabited Deserts by John R. Pepper, invade Todi
The photographic exhibition by the North American artist, preceded by an International Round Table, will be held in Todi from the 3rd of October to the 28th of November.
John R. Pepper’s photographic exhibition titled “Inhabited Deserts” opened on the 3rd of October 2020 in the beautiful scenery of the historic centre of Todi. The exhibition has been produced by the Comune of Todi with the essential contribution of Fondazione Cultura e Arte, a branch of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Internazionale chaired by Professor Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States of America in Italy and is curated by Gianluca Marziani, co-curator Kirill Petrin.
In 53 analogic images taken with his Leica M6, without tricks, in the black & white of great reporters, John R. Pepper, an all-round photographer and artist, narrates his three-year journey through the most remote deserts in the world.
John R. Pepper stated, “Deserts have always fascinated photographers. Often a photographer enters deserts to capture the beauty of the landscape. As beautiful as that might be, it was not what I was seeking. I wanted to go further. My concept, my goal, has been to use the desert as a painter uses a virgin white canvas. I sought to discover what imagery was revealed to my eye - sometimes it was figurative, sometimes abstract and the symbiosis between the landscape before me and the imagery buried within me. Through this subliminal search, my photograph, my ‘canvas’ becomes an expression of my inner being, of what I feel as an artist.”
Three years, 18.000 kilometres traveling through the deserts of Dubai, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Oman, Russia and the U.S.A. allowed Pepper to discover fascinating places that express emotional and geographical complexity and diversity. This interior journey emerges from the silence of the images and reveals how silence unites humanity in intense and profound encounters. The curator of the Exhibition, Gianluca Marziani says: “Pepper eludes the perspicacity of digital software, avoiding make-up tricks and embracing the analogue theme in a sensitive way. He modulates the greyscales with ‘dowsing’ sharpness, outlining the dunes as if they were blades, separating the contrasts with semantic ambivalence, sensing the instant in which the sun draws without smudging”.
The co-curator Kirill Petrin states, “While going with John Peppera on this adventure, you may discover a thing or two about yourself. Even some of his legendary desert guides, men who spend their lives in the desert and know its every nook and cranny, admit they haven’t seen their own deserts like this before. His photographs, paradoxically, don’t take you to the actual places where they are shot. They take you elsewhere, to a new place for your mind and imagination to inhabit.”
Professor Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele commented, “My sincere appreciation of John R. Pepper’s talent dates back to 2016 when Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, urged by myself, held his solo exhibition ‘Evaporations’ in the halls of Palazzo Cipolla. With this new ambitious project, which entailed three years of work and crossing most of the globe, Pepper manages to render an image of our planet which evokes the miracle of the Creation, a return to ‘Year Zero’, from which it all began, in which the apparent emptiness that transpires from each image becomes full of tangible contents: one above all, the need to stop to listen to your conscience, in order to finally re-establish harmony between Man and Nature”. Evaporations. Professor Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele commented, “My sincere appreciation of John R. Pepper’s talent dates back to 2016 when Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, urged by myself, held his solo exhibition ‘Evaporations’ in the halls of Palazzo Cipolla. With this new ambitious project, which entailed three years of work and crossing most of the globe, Pepper manages to render an image of our planet which evokes the miracle of the Creation, a return to ‘Year Zero’, from which it all began, in which the apparent emptiness that transpires from each image becomes full of tangible contents: one above all, the need to stop to listen to your conscience, in order to finally re-establish harmony between Man and Nature”..
Il percorso espositivo è accompagnato da video che condividono l?avventuroso backstage per cogliere quell?attimo fermato dallo scatto, oltre a interviste con le guide e i personaggi incontrati.
A valuable book- catalogue with the Introductions of the Mayor of Todi, Antonino Ruggiano and the Chairman of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro-Internazionale Professor Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, the critical essays by Gianluca Marziani and Kirill Petrin and t comment by John R. Pepper.
On the 2nd of October, the opening ceremony of exhibition was preceded by an International Round Table, titled “Il confine assente. Conflitti e nuove armonie”, moderated by Duilio Gianmaria.
MAX CALDERAN, leader of the extreme desert explorer, holder of 13 world records
GIANCARLO ESPOSITO, the famous Gus Fring in the cult series Breaking Bad and it prequel Better Call Saul and Spike Lee films. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul e dei film di Spike Lee.
SHEIKH AHMED MOHAMMED AL-JEBALI, sceicco della tribù Jabaleya, tribù responsabile della sicurezza del monastero di Santa Caterina nel Sud-Sinai dal 565 d.C.
AVNER GORAN, world renowned archaeologist, Israeli representative for the Abraham Paths Initiative.
MEHRDAD GHAZVINIAN, major export of Iranian deserts, known as the ‘Desert Fox’.
ANTONINO RUGGIANO, Mayor of Todi.
Professor EMMANUELE F. M. EMANUELE, Chairman of Fondazione Terzo Pilastro-Internazionale.
RODNEY FORD, the Cultural Attaché at the United States Embassy in Italy.
GIANLUCA MARZIANI, curator of the exhibition.
KIRILL PETRIN, co-curator of the exhibition.
JOHN R. PEPPER.
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