SARA SCANDEREBECH CAPTURES FOPE JEWELLERY IN A VIRTUAL ATMOSPHERE FOR FOPELAB

SC — I started out as a painter, so I have never considered myself a fashion photographer. This does not detract from the fact that when I come across projects that fit in with my story, as in the case of FOPE, I am pleased to take part in them, also because still life is close to my world and does not require a formalist approach. I believe that the secret of this spontaneity in photography, the same with which I have tried to observe FOPE jewellery, stems from the free gaze of social media, an inclusive language that comes from below and constantly influences contemporary visual culture. The city is a great source of inspiration for me. I moved to Milan to experience a cultural input of art, cinema and music on a daily basis. Being able to choose, every day, which exhibition to see or where to go to listen to music is essential to me, as they are all elements that I then convey into my own practice. In my daily life I alternate between periods of work in my home-studio and days when I unload and fully experience the city. I realise, however, that I am very attracted to nature, perhaps because I see the more provincial contexts as opportunities for recollection. Mine is a blossoming process, closing in to create and opening up when I need to let stimuli in, and for this, being in the centre is as necessary as getting out.

SC — In my photography, the aim is to detach the vision of reality; my desire is always to create other visions and intrusions. The idea for the project for FOPE came from a photo of a piece of jewellery resting on a screen. From there, I started to think about the possibility of using some of my archive photos, both to have a coherent abstract imagery, and so as not to take other objects into account in the dialogue with the jewellery. I thought for a long time about how to convey the duality between technology and craftsmanship inherent in FOPE jewellery. I wanted the dialogue between the jewellery and the space I designed to emerge. Details of plants, animals, objects and bodies are thus transformed into new symbols in relation to FOPE jewellery. For me it is important to create an emotional tension suspended somewhere between attraction towards the portrayed subject and its rejection.

SC — I love the possibility of using new tools to create, just as I love the social and digital media; so much so that I use them as sources for my aesthetic and formal research. Most of the things I like to do in photography could never have been done twenty years ago: I cannot imagine myself without macro, without auto focus and without a screen. Dealing with FOPE jewellery made me realise how this also applies to jewellery: for example, the Solo bracelet with yellow, rose and white gold rondels amazed me precisely because of the Flex’it technology of the elastic links.

SC — If I could invent a new technology in the field of photography, it would be a micro-binocular capable of approaching an animal or another subject without disturbing it. In my work, the idea of approach and intrusion is fundamental, hence the relationship with the subject. I don’t like to steal photographs; rather I always want to relate to and touch what I shoot, especially in nature.