7-12-95
Photography began to interest me when I had moved beyond youthful impudence. I didn’t want to prove anything or defend anything. I had already learned that life imposes itself on you. I simply integrated photography into it and let myself go with the flow. My desire is for my knowledge and emotions to operate unconsciously, so that my work, like my life, surprises me. I have no specific plans or ambitions.
The photographic process is more important to me than the result. I try not to get anxious when a photo eludes me and not to get too excited when one comes my way.
I don’t take photos regularly. Nevertheless, photography fills my life. I think about it, teach it, judge it, write about it, and enjoy it. So, when the moment comes to press the button, I feel that I have never abandoned it.
I started like everyone, with the spontaneity and innocence that only ignorance can provide. This was followed by the inevitable phase of imitating my idols. And when they became too many and impossible to imitate, I let myself search for a new and now mature innocence.
I seek the simple, which can become classic. I shun fashion and trends. I fear my own ease. I search for what interests me, without knowing what it is. I hope for the truth (and the charm) of the result. I respect rigor. I photograph various subjects simultaneously, perhaps in different ways. I believe this helps me better integrate into the complex world and stay true to my contradictory nature.
I feel the power of reality and myth in the static photographic image. Its temporal duration frightens and fascinates me.
Photography interests me mainly as a tool for classification and visual transfer of the stimuli I receive from the world. These consist of magnified details or immense sizes that need to be scaled down to make them my own. And they change. With the random moments of my life, the chance acquaintance with a place, the chance meeting with people, the chance acquisition of a camera.
I photograph faces because they enchant and torment me, ruins and gardens because they scare and comfort me, street scenes because they amuse and sadden me, theatrical moments because there, as in photography, lies the fake time and fictitious space.
I present my photographs in exhibitions or publications, arranged in small sections of stimuli. They are never finished nor isolated. They all join in the unfolding of my life."
Plato Rivellis