Brazilian artist, Herbert Baglione sends us his ongoing project “1000 Shadows” that find life in various forms and places around the world. His hauntingly beautiful works often installed in abandoned or forgotten places create striking imagery and impact in the most unexpected ways for the viewer.
The Artist explains: “I have been doing the shadows since 1999, during which period also began shooting with a Nikon FM10 analogic camera. At that time, my idea of exploring photography went beyond the simple registration and cataloging of my artwork, the intent was to enhance way of looking at it and interpreting the painting inserted in different environments.
But it took 15 years for the idea of the shadows to stop being a loose element in my extensive line of work for, and to turn into a project. In July 2013 I painted the shadows in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, in the town of Parma in Italy, and thus the project 1000 Shadows was born.
The artistic interference with shadows changes according to the places where they are inserted, as well as the external interpretation from the image, and this is very interesting.
I have particular interest in finding places I have never worked before, such as a Garden from the seventeenth century, in the city of La Rochelle, ruins, a Church from the sixteenth century in the town of Celles Sur Belle and an underground hospital complex in Niort.
The “reading” of these places allows me to take the shadow to a unique path, which usually feeds and broadens the discussion because it brings light to the abandoned environment, and so I put the name of this series as “The path that the soul takes.” The idea for the name came from a conversation I had with my brother (William Baglione) about the places to do these installations. It is as if the soul is leaving an invisible trail on these places. ”
At the Underground Hospital in Niort:
