Photographer
Giacomo Brunelli
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Giacomo Brunelli (b. Perugia, Italy, 1977) graduated with a degree in International Communications in 2002. His series on animals has been exhibited widely with solo shows at the BlueSky Gallery, Portland, Oregon (Usa), The New Art Gallery Walsall (Uk), StreetLevel Glasgow (Uk), Arden & Anstruther Petworth (Uk), Galleria Belvedere Milan (Italy), Fotofestiwal Lodz (Poland) and Boutographies, Montepellier (France).
The work has already won a number of prizes including the Sony World Photography Award, the Gran Prix Lodz, Poland, the B&W magazine Spotlight and the Magenta Foundation “Flash Forward 2009”. He has also featured widely in the art and photography press including Eyemazing (Holland) B&W Magazine (Usa), Creative Review (Uk), Foto&Video (Russia), Images Magazine (France) Photographie (Germany), Katalog (Denmark), AdBusters (Canada).
“The Animals”, his first monograph, was published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in 2008.
Statement
I have been working on the series of animals for four years and with them I want to photograph their freedom to move but I am also trying to give information about their bodies (skin, hair, ears,
legs) and to investigate my own reaction in their presence.
When I was a child I used to spend time playing with animals and I think that is why I push the lens often to its closest point of focus, almost touching the subject and forcing flight or fight from the animal, which is when I then record its reaction."
All the animals I photograph are found in the backyards, small villages, fields, and farms and I call the way I work “animal-focused street photography”.
Once I see an animal that I want to photograph, I try to ignore it then I run after it which usually gains a response; sometimes I just stare at it and see what happens. Their reactions are different, sometimes they are curious about the camera and sometimes they get scared about the noise of the shutter. When I am dealing with dead animals I pick them up from the ground and place them where I think the setting works. In this case my interaction with the animal is a way to give purpose to something that it no longer has.
