Am I Not Light

gedicht en foto’s Bob Farese, Jr.photography Bob Farese, Jr.

In 2015, photographer and scientist Bob Farese, Jr., moved to a new and somewhat bewildering city, finding himself suddenly without the usual creature comforts of family and friends, and experiencing aloneness in an unexpected and profound way. To soothe his feelings of isolation, Farese began taking street photographs drawing inspiration from the spontaneous and observational style of iPhone photographers David Guttenfelder and Gueorgui Pinkhassov, and the work of Cartier-Bresson. Images were captured in a mindful and receptive manner, alert to interesting viewpoints of everyday things that are hidden in plain view. Beauty in the banal.

Over the next five years, Farese continued his personal photographic journey with guidance from his mentor, the British/Egyptian photographer, Laura ElTantawy. More than 100 of Farese’s exquisite images made during this period will be published in his first monograph, Am I Not Light (Lecturis, August 2021). The work reflects the photographer’s experience of arrival, the yearning for connection, and the newfound feeling of solitude. It is a meditation on loneliness, but not on solitary aloneness. Rather it expresses how one can feel alone even whilst being among many.

Farese’s images are lyrical, sometimes sensual, at times direct, often with a delicate distance. They made their way into the photographer’s eye from his peripheral vision, unexpectedly, as light called out to him. Many are abstractions of the ordinary, framed with an aesthetic to render them extraordinary.

English

format 165 x 224 size 316 pages Japanese bound in hardcover design Syb release November NUR 653 ISBN 978-94-6226-419-9 € 35,00 Bob Farese, Jr. is a doctor and a research scientist with a love for the creative arts, including photography and music. A longtime artist with pencil or paintbrush, recently he discovered the joy of making sketches with a camera. He studied and learned photography under the teaching and influences of David Guttenfelder, Ed Kashi, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Tatiana Sotnikova, Laura El-Tantawy, and his wife, Nancy Richards Farese. He lives in Boston and the San Francisco Bay area. His Instagram page serves as a public gallery, a diary filled with “visual poetry”, and his photos have been selected for several awards for mobile photography. Am I Not Light is his first photo book.