In the room, photo essay by Francesca Cesari
A secluded and silent place where a mother puts her child to sleep through breast-feeding. The transition between waking and sleeping, as the fulfillment takes over every resistance and distraction.
The mother’s solid presence consciously supporting the baby’s passage into unconsciousness, renewing the ritual, everlasting gestures of former generations of women.
A suspended time of devotion and tenderness that coexists with the alienating repetitiveness of a daily routine.
These are the main issues explored by the pictures, to describe the atmosphere of a private and symbiotic moment, exclusive of the experience of maternity.
The project is structured in two sections, the first (01 to 06) where the subjects are contextualized in the familiar environment around them, the second (07 to 12) which focuses on the relationship between mother and child through the embrace, portrayed by a more close-up point of view.
In the Room is an ongoing series that started in 2013 and has developed along 2014 until these days.
Q&A with Francesca Cesari
Photography is…
Photography is my personal way to interact with people and to get a closer look at different ways of living.
Focusing on a small, fixed section of reality gives me the opportunity to stop and think, a pause to process and contemplate an amazingly fast world.
Photography and writing…
Images are an alphabet to write a story, or to describe an atmosphere or a feeling.
I usually write some notes about the concept I like to develop with pictures but nothing too structured, just short sentences that convey a general idea of what is the situation I want to portray. Words and there just as signs of something that everyone could interpret in his own way.
Who left the biggest impression on you?
My visual approach has been highly influenced by several painters, first of all J.S.Sargent with his powerful range of portraits, but also the Flemish Old Masters, the Post Impressionists and, more recently, the few beautiful portraits by Gerard Richter.
Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Mary Ellen Mark, Annie Leibovitz, Sally Mann represent some of the most inspiring artists in my photographic path.
Tell us a little about yourself
Since I was a child I’ve always been inclined to observation rather than being a strong protagonist of what was happening around me.
I’m fascinated by human relationships and by the way people evolve and change (both physically and inwardly) during their own life.
Listening to their stories and taking pictures of them gives me a sense of great fulfillment.
Francesca Cesari is a freelance photographer based in Bologna, she has a Master in Fine Arts from the University of Bologna, as well as a Diploma in Professional Photographic Practice from the London College of Communication.
Her artistic research focuses on people, photographed in natural light and on location, the projects she leads mostly concentrate on family, maternity and intergenerational relationships.
