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Through landscapes

“Through landscapes” | Photo Exhibition by STEFANO AMANTINI

One photo a day on Facebook and Instagram pages of the Italian Cultural Institute | Valletta
From 22 June to 5 July 2020 |

“It’s minimalist, the world of the photographer. In his vision, only few travelers will cross it, a human presence that is discreet and near invisible, that doesn’t impose itself on the landscape, yet is embedded within it. The boy reflected in a low tide sunset, the hiker lost in the dense birch, the driver (might it be a farmer?) that follows a precarious road of asphalt engulfed by the jungle, the skier overwhelmed by the absolute whiteness. That’s all that is left of humanity, of the eight billion people that, they say, have invaded the planet and turned it into an unlivable place.

They say.

Yet in the eyes of Stefano Amantini reality is different. It’s a reality made of disorienting geographies and geologies, of lights and seasons and skies that amaze, of exuberant vegetation and desolated aridity. Of flat horizons even where orography suggests movements, horizontal ones in fact, the same way we adjust to the curvature of the Earth’s surface and to the desired depth of field: the choice of “panoramic” format is not random.

Therefore the stories of those solitary characters remain tiny and us viewers can only suspect of their past and their future. However briefly, because immediately we are swept by the force of the landscape.

It’s this landscape that represents the object of contemplation (by now forty years old) of Amantini. The infinite wonder that the landscape keeps inspiring: no matter which latitude, whether at 45° parallel of a familiar Tuscany, or at 30° of the Tropics, whether on American beaches or on the snowy highlands of the Alps. The real difference, anywhere, is given by the eyes of the photographer and of us viewers: our ability to amaze ourselves and to catch in any horizon wonder and beauty. And rethink about this planet as a place of harmony” (Paolo Paci).

Stefano Amantini became a professional photographer in1987 after his degree in Anthropology and after some experience in advertising. He then decided to dedicate himself entirely to travel coverage. His cultural background and his artistic sensibility have led him to many far away destinations among which the Sahara Desert. A breakthrough for him was in 1991 when, together with Massimo Borghi and Guido Cozzi, he founded Atlantide Phototravel, a photographic agency specialized in travel coverage. Assignment from the

major travel magazines – both Italian and foreign – which have published his work include GEO Saison, V&S, Bell’Italia, In Viaggio, Gente Viaggi, D La Repubblica, Panorama Travel, Dove, GEO (France and Spain), Wine Spectator, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times and Rutas del Mundo. Thanks to magazine assignments and his own personal travel projects, he has built a vast and unique photo archive.