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ALESSANDRO BANCHELLI DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Documentary photography Black and White is my aesthetic approach at reportage storytelling. I love the contrast with the light and shadow, the frontier between two worlds, the brightness and the darkness. The photography is a great method to tell a story and I’m fascinating when the camera can investigate the reality; the curiosity is my gasoline and the trip is just a way to discover the world. I define the reportage photography as a mission where the author can meet a hidden world and the focus is to tale at somebody else what i have in front with special point of view. Easy to say… hard to do!!!! My passion for a lost world and the past is the leitmotif of my projects. Ancient cultures, traditions, environment are disappearing in this crazy Era, the time is going to fast in our lives and the society doesn’t want to remember the origin of our species. We are forgetting our History, our knowledge, our identity. So bad to say but I think we need to fight against this Oblivion, my contribute at this battle is a black and white photo sequence….

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I’m resident in Mexico since 2007 and here i met the indigenous culture. The most Surreal culture in the world ( def by Antonin Artaud 1896 – 1948) captured me from the first approach. I like to visit the south of Mexico and in this website you can watch many projects come from Chiapas or Campeche States as the Mexico City. Mexico is a mix between the modernity and the ancient past, “Como Mexico no hay dos” said the people…. This country is very hard to understand for a European guy like me… After the Spanish and French colonization centuries Mexico runs with 2 different rhythms. The progress is only for exclusives parts of the country, the big cities located in the north. Many villages are located in the rural site, so the new society and the progress can’t touch them and influence the culture. These villages are isolated from the rest and they have conserved the true habits from the Mayan world: I had the privilege to be part of a Tzotzil wedding in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. The indigenous are very jealous of them images and they don’t like to be photographed, they are very hermetic. I visited the last traditional Mellipona beekeepers (Mayan Bee) where they still use the ancient mayan technique; I wanted to investigate the Mayan physiognomy in the kids in Quintana Roo state, and finally I met the Lacandones inside the “Monte Azules bioshphere” Selva lacandona. I’m aware this hidden indigenous world is not important for the mainstream culture, the first world wants sensationalism stories, to shock the viewers… and forget the most important, the memory. Sometimes the ancient past is uncomfortable to include in a fake and modern society.