June 2023
"The path to the summit is, like the journey to oneself, a solitary route.".
Ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Alessandro Gogna
Italia, 1946
Many come to the mountain attempting to achieve the impossible. They traverse the path briskly, without stopping, without diverting their gaze from the trail, thinking only of reaching the summit, as if conquering the rock were possible. They believe they possess the wild spirit of the mountain within, but the mountain cannot be deceived. Perhaps they do not understand that real conquest occurs from within and that journeying these paths alone, with oneself, leads them step by step through a long inner journey towards a destination more unattainable than the peaks themselves.
This series dedicated to the mountains has been evolving for almost a decade, much like my way of seeing and photographing, as I traversed paths leading to the most incredible landscapes. The selection of 35 photographs shaping the current series is the result of exploration, not only of the natural environment but also of myself. Each step taken among rocks and cliffs was also a step through the long inner journey, which, akin to a pilgrimage, led me to self-discovery.
Every image in the series has been created from start to finish using photochemical processes, from exposing the negative, in medium and large format, to printing, toning, and retouching the final silver gelatin print, done manually without the intervention of any digital technology.
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