Alongside my artistic work as a self-potrait artist, I love to create a fantastic and imaginary world where animals, common objects and nature meet in surreal atmospheres. “Allegories of life, lessons of nature” is a series of photos with allegorical and metaphorical meanings about life.
The images come to life from my everyday life experiences: living in the countryside, surrounded by 13 dogs, chickens, pigs, horses and all kinds of farm animals, fruit and olive trees and plantations are an inexhaustible source of ideas and inspiration for my work. It’s remarkable how sometimes the most common objects can dress symbolic meanings and almost take life completely integrated in the narrative plot. In many of these surreal pictures you can also see my sensitivity to the defense of animals, my love for dogs and my commitment to the preservation of nature.
About Alessandra Favetto
Artist and self portraiture photographer with eclectic visions that embrace the realms of nature and the depth of human emotions and feelings. The camera is my time machine that allows me to draw an imaginary world full of different tones and vibrations: sometimes I jump in a surreal world where animals, plants and objects speak through allegories and metaphors, some other times I dive into the darkness of soul and translate into concepts its thousands facets.
Every image is a story that leaves the door open to imagination and to each person’s thoughts, perceptions and personal experiences. I use self portraiture to create characters that are a representation of a surreal, dreamy, ironic and passionate world I would love to live in. Through my images I transport outside the conflicts of human personality, the ironic ambiguity between the wisdom of adults and the innocence of children and animals. By favoring a square frame, I encourage the viewer’s eye to move in a circle allowing to feel a well balanced perception of the scene. Each image starts with an idea and often with a draft on paper of the story and then the camera and the editing are the tools to bring to life what’s in my mind: a fantasy dream world hanging within the limits of surrealism and supernatural. [Official Website]
My inspiration comes from the observation of life and nature around me, from my inner thoughts and feelings, from looking behind and beyond everyday life as it appears to us, and searching for answers to the usual existential questions. My works are symbolic representations of my views and reflections of what I see and perceive; translations of emotions, dreams, fears and feelings. I consider myself as a self-taught photo artist. The camera is a tool that allows me to enter different worlds; I need it to catch what I see in my mind.
First step of my creative process is in the idea, a draft of what I want my artwork to look like. Then I use the camera to start building shapes and structure the scene. The creative process continues on my computer, that’s where photoshop tools help me “paint” the final image. I’m an eclectic person. I like to study, I like to improve my knowledges, I’m curious about everything and need a day of 48 hours to have enough time to do all that I love. This is reflected a lot in my work. Although there’s a style that ties my images, I periodically start a new project or set. I need to try different editing processes and styles otherwise I get bored and start lacking interest.
Creating is driven by a fire, it’s a need like eating and sleeping. The pleasure is in the process itself, pleasure is creating, shooting, editing. Once the artwork is finished and I’m satisfied with the result, I immediately feel the urge to start a new work, as if the previous couldn’t feed my soul enough. So the fire keeps burning and I’m ready to start a new adventure all over again. I use metaphors, symbols, allegories; I love to interpret the unseen, “conceptual” photography as they define it, although I’m not so keen on giving my art a tag, neither explaining what I want to transmit. I intend to let my images stand or fall by themselves, art is so subjective.
