[ F O R EWO R D ]
Biophilia
Pronunciation: [bahy-oh-fil-ee-uh, -feel-yuh] Definition: An innate love of life and affinity with the living world.
Raphael Mazzucco is irrefutably a lover of life. His passion for synchronicity between his subjects and settings, coupled with an epicurean aesthetic, has resulted in arguably some of the most relevant photography today, taking the world of fine art by storm. Mazzucco’s work heralds a new age of art. Biophilia acknowledges his zeal, and references his instinctive kinship with all living matter. From fellow man, to his relationship with habitats and the natural world, his affinity knows no bounds. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than Biophilia. This collection is based upon, relies on and draws from connections. The connection between life, our lives, and the life forces around us. The connections made when we step barefoot on earth, submerge our face in water or rest the length of our bodies against a towering tree; these connections transcend taxonomy and unite us through acknowledging our commonality of energy and vitality. As the alchemists, sorcerers and astrologers of bygone years knew, to be truly powerful one had to harness the power of the natural world; thus Mazzucco has formed an alliance with nature in this body of work to coax full elemental beauty through his lens. No detail, no element or biome is deemed irrelevant or unworthy of notice. Their very existence dictates that they contribute in some way to the ecosystems and partnerships celebrated in Biophilia. Mazzucco’s mastery of staging allows the viewer to live and breathe the moments captured by his photography. Hinting at a canopy of trees, laden with air so heavy and so humid, allows his female subjects to exude not only their God-given beauty, but a sensual and languorous heat
that, without the climatic context, would feel staged and inauthentic. As an artist, Mazzucco addresses his audience and asserts that the gentle flurry of a butterfly’s wings, and the seductive flutter of a woman’s eyelashes, hold equal gravitas in his compositions. To be in the presence of this collection of work is to walk the equator, taking in every vantage, experiencing every sensation, greeting every living being and absorbing every detail. His female subjects are your signposts, directing you between savannahs, prairies, deltas, grasslands and rainforests, demanding your attention and commanding that your focus falls not only on them, but on the waterfalls, woodlands and water lilies that share their spotlight. An observer will see Mazzucco working within the framework of finessed photography, with the applied expression of painting, to influence the sensation of movement throughout this collection. One has the distinct impression that he is leading us to recognise that the breeze causing his subjects’ hair to billow so pleasingly in some pieces, also gifts us the endemic ripples in sand dunes, the gentle swell of waves on shorelines; elements so unassumingly mesmerising one might overlook them in the pursuit of “beauty”. Mazzucco does not ask us to choose between the appeal of nature versus socially imposed standards of attractiveness, rather he would like us to recognise that both have a part to play, and neither reach their true potential without the other. Drawing on the theory of holism, which presents the idea that natural systems should be viewed as as a whole rather than individual elements, this body of work is an unadulterated celebration of splendour.
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