I wake up. It is dark everywhere around me. I feel the ground.

I look for an exit; I try to get out. Two eyes are staring at

me, they are following me. They do not give up. I am scared.

I am cold. Why am I so cold? Why am I naked? Where are

my clothes? Whose eyes are these? Is it a mirror? Wait, it is

not a mirror. I am not alone in the room. Who are you? I do

scream loud. Stop it. Enough! Leave me alone, please. I am

cold. Do not look at me in such a way. Who are you? What?

What the hell are you saying? Stop it. You cannot be me.

I am myself.

I am questioning the identity

I have been wondering for a long time, how I would appear to my own eyes, how I would perceive my actions as a distinct foreign person. How the others would see themselves?

I have asked the models to imagine to wake up in the dark and end up in front of...themselves. Not a mirror; in front of a distinct him/her-self. Who lives an independent life, and who observes him/her. I have asked them what their reaction would be. What would they say? Could they look at him/her in the eyes? What if he/she tried to get closer, to touch them? He/she is scrutinizing you. Just one possibility: talk to him/her.

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These pictures represent traces, fragments of far away and timeless dialogues, that over time fade, evaporate, leaving just an echo bringing along anxiety, fear, distress, rage, surprise. And where nudity adds fragility and unease with respect to an unknown and stressful situation.

Some of the models thanked me at the end of the shooting for such a peculiar travel into the twists and turns of their mind and their body.

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All pictures have been taken in studio, using black and white and colour films with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II, where each model has been photographed twice on the same negative.

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- This series has been officially selected for the “Rendez-Vous Image” photo fair in Strasbourg, France – January 2016.

- The work has been officially selected for the “Festival Européen de la Photo de Nu” in Arles, France – May 2015.

- These pictures have been published on the renowned blog “L'Oeil de la Photographie/The Eye of Photography” – March 2015.

I am an independent photographer, working at the moment between Paris and Basel. I like portrait photography and everything has to do with the body. Studio work is for me synonym of creativity, of enchanted place where, thanks to the light, ideas become reality. For my personal projects, I only use black and white or color films.

You can see more of my work on my personal website:

www.raffaelloferone.com

Exhibition ''Fragments of Lost Dialogues'' at Salon d’Automne 2017 in Paris

The publications