by Sandro Iovine
Drug addicts, alcoholics, debauchees and/or the worst you can possibly think of. It’s easy for you to see young people this way if you are conformists. But even if you do not think of yourselves as conformists, your eyes will probably be forced to see them this way, set in this type of iconographic cliché. On the television, in the newspapers, and above all in photographs. And even worse if the theme is youthful frenzy, the source and result at the same time, of excesses, disquiet, difficulties and parasitic, self-destructive inspiration. Nothing new, when you consider that accentuating dramatic pathos is the inescapable basis of the attractiveness of suffering that guarantees the public’s attention to such images. Passing from a level of producing to one of carrying and using images, it should not be forgotten that if on one hand, certain models generate the phenomena of identification and emulation within young people in small groups in terms of numbers and real social impact, on the other hand, they make it possible to structure and consolidate much larger groups with a determining effect at social and economic levels. Those I have called conformists, for the sake of simplicity, will feel removed from images of youthful frenzy and this will strengthen their individual sense of belonging to another tribe, founded and gathered around values that risk being put into a crisis by the negative or, if you prefer, non-existent values expressed by young people. Recognising an enemy against which to unite and defend themselves will therefore have a calming and consolidating effect, bringing stability. This is certainly neither a new nor an original mechanism, but it never ceases to work and it is widely exploited by communications systems, which are intertwined with the structures that hold power. There is no use in underlining that, as customers, those controlling communications are able to orientate and even determine the lines of prestigious models as well as of negative ones. In other words, they can succeed in manipulating the reception context.
At this point, it seems inevitable to ask oneself just how much is left of the independence and discretion of the photojournalist - a communicator working in a conditioning professional environment - when called upon to produce a piece about youthful frenzy. The simplest option would be to thrown him/herself into the mare magnum of different forms of misery, dipping into the unease that has perhaps always distinguished a certain stage in the development of human beings everywhere. The result would probably have some success, since not only would it fail to upset the status quo but, as we have seen, it would consolidate references, promoting by antithesis, the cohesion and consciousness of self-representation of socially determining groups for the purpose of maintaining economic and political power. However, in this way the piece would not be a story about youthful frenzy, as it might seem at first glance, but rather, for those who scratch below the surface, it would be a report on the conditioning experienced by the communicator. But can the communicator, the photojournalist break through the bars of this cage? If he or she aims to increase the profile of his/her work in the press, be it in hard copy or electronic form, I think it would be highly unlikely these days that he/she will be able to break free of the perverse chains controlling him or her. However, if he/she is brave enough, he/she could try to make the most of those precious and unfortunately, extremely rare examples of pieces destined to exhibitions, in the hope that he/she will be granted the freedom to express the thought, content and form contribution that makes him/her an author.
If this happens, he/she will be able to use another expedient to capture the attention of the public: surprising its expectations. Are we used to seeing young people adrift in a sea of alcohol, drugs and a lack of values? Well, if this is what is communicated to us as normal, then why not portray those who have chosen to dedicate themselves to traditional occupations, closely linked to the love of their area? Why not offer the surprising sight of a frenzy of conformist and hardworking youth, young people doing backbreaking jobs on the land of their birth, under a harsh sun, just as their conformist and hardworking ancestors, grandparents and parents before them? This today risks becoming a politically revolutionary gesture (in the etymological sense, of course).
That is why, faced with the exhibited theory of drug-addicted, alcoholic, debauchees, it is perhaps our duty to show a youthful frenzy as expressed by normal young people, doing normal things.
EMANUELE CREMASCHI
Emanuele Cremaschi was born in 1980, Sanremo, Italy.
He completed high school between Italy and Perth (Australia), then moved to Milan in 1999: he studied Law and attended the CFP Bauer Photography School.
He became a professional photographer in 2006, as he started freelancing for the photojournalistic agency Emblema working about spot, news and politics.
Still, he had the chance to report from Bosnia, France and Lebanon.
In 2008 he joined “prospekt”, where he started focusing on stories and documentary. He is based in Milan.
Exhibitions
2007 Al Talieni, Occhi Aperti 2007, Vallo d. Lucania
2007 Luoghi Resistenti, Genoa and Vicenza
2007 Nuove cittadinanze realizzate, Milan
Publications
Carta, Corriere della Sera, Diario, Il Giornale, Il Manifesto, Il Messaggero, Il Mondo, Il Sole 24 ORE, La Repubblica, La Stampa, L'Unità - Left Avvenimenti - Liberazione - L'espresso - Newsweek (RUS) - Panorama - Peacereporter - Rolling Stone - Robb Report - Russian Reporter - The New Yorker - Vanity Fair ZEROZERO:ZEROUNO, Introduzione di Dario Fo, AA.VV.
CONTACT
Emanuele Cremaschi
mail:
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skype: emanuele.cremaschi
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