Recently, I had a look again at Paolo Ventura's pictures. I wrote about him in one of my first posts and he still impresses me so much.
Among a few others of course, he shows the world what impact some pictures of a (quiet simply produced) miniature landscape can have. His accurate arrangements are very carefully photographed and the examples I'm gonna show you here are truly contemporary (in contrast to his other famous "Wartime" series, which are set in the 1930ies in Italy). Altough the recent political and military crises in Mali, Syria, Afghanistan, and so many more are a bit overshadowing the current (and past) situation in Iraq, Ventura recaptures soldiers fighting and dying next to Sadam Hussein's large picture on a shot wall or corpses in the sand. The static and drastic character of his scenography hits me every time, leaving me thinking about the accomplished skills of this artist, the motives and the real horror and tragedy which is omnipresent in so many deadly conflicts around the world.
To me, Ventura is one of the great quiet artists and chronists of our time.
All pictures above are copyright © Paolo Ventura
