Vanitas

Vanitas is a 2015 project born as a tribute to the 1600’s painting style and, in particular, to the themes of human frailty and the passing of beauty. The dark tones and the repeated use of the same stage objects melt into an obsessive research of composition: keeping me busy for many hours inside my studio, this project transformed in some sort of lonely cruise around the dramas of the human condition. Most of the images were realized with the light-painting technique, in a completely dark room, and some represent a tribute to the most famous paintings of the 1600’s period, such as “still life with a skull” by Philippe de Champaigne (1671).
This collection, that at the moment counts more than 65 images, kept Tristan Dark’s atelier busy for many months in the research and/or making of the stage objects, and heavily tested my personal commitment when I started using little dead animals found on the countryside roads surrounding the studio. A “sacrifice” I well accepted in order to celebrate the only constant element in every living creature’s life: death.