Steve Bisson editor of Urbanautica was selected among 12 internationally acclaimed photographers and curators for the Jury of Life Framer Award. «The award is judged each month by a different world class photographer or industry leader with a wealth of experience and expertise to their name. They provide a critique of their favourite images, giving you valuable feedback from a top professional.» Steve Bisson will be selecting and commenting on the winning images for Life Framer Open Call of January (deadline January 31st). Life Framer is an award designed to source and showcase outstanding photography from amateur, emerging and established photographers. We aim to bring exposure to talented photographers from all over the world. Their talent, their stories, their lives… Here you can learn more about the prizes.
INTERVIEW BY RALPH WILSON
Steve Bisson of Urbanautica is at the helm of Life Framer this month, leading judging for our ‘OPEN CALL’. We chatted to him about Urbanautica, art as a way of bringing people together, and the end of photography as we know it…
Hi Steve! Thanks for sharing some time with us. Where in the world do we find you and what’s keeping you busy?
I live with my family near Asolo, a very small medieval village in the foothills of the Veneto region, in Italy. I try to keep myself busy with books and writing. I earn my living with art direction activities with companies, museums, artists, galleries and anyone who is really interested in working with me. I also try not to keep myself busy when I can.
'Experience of Space: Landscape in Photography', Exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2014
Curated by Steve Bisson
We’re delighted to have you as judge for our fourth call for entries. This one’s a little different as it’s an Open Call and so anything goes… Have you judged photography prizes before? What are you looking for in a winning image, as opposed to a series or a body of work?
I believe that a good photograph is not necessarily a knock out. It can also be something that gives you a hand. I have been invited to some juries before, however I do not particularly like to judge. I approached photography because I felt that I could learn something from others. I never stopped believing in this. For me a single image or a series make no difference. It is how they speak to me that is of interest.
You’re best known for Urbanautica – can you tell us a little more about the platform, how it began and what it sets out to do?
It all started as a form of personal research. The goal was to investigate how and why people represent their world. The first result was a kind of online archive. As time went on, I felt the need to communicate with other people on the outcomes of the research. And so slowly other people came with their ideas. And later came exhibitions, publications, reviews, and much more. Urbanautica represents an almost spontaneous evolution of a will to share a vision with the world. For this I know that one day there will be someone else to help me continue this journey.
Exhibition ‘Mother Russia’ at The Salt Yard, Hong Kong, China, 2013
We understand that Urbanautica now has an international network of curators. What’s the idea behind this new curatorial force and how does it work?
The basic idea is to have a decentralized structure of curators who can better represent Urbanautica in single countries. In this way we can better monitor what happens in the local scene and also be closer to the people, to the exhibitions, to galleries, bookshops and curators. Everyone can develop direct relations with the territory, and make them grow. The results are impressive. In Belgium the first country where we started, with Dieter Debruyne and Peter Waterschoot, the participation was beyond expectations. We are open to anyone who is willing to contribute to the idea and the network.
Beyond Urbanautica there’s a host of other things you’re involved with –among them Galleria Browning. Can you tell us a bit more about it? With the gallery being located in Asolo – a small town in Italy – is this a way to show that culture and origins matter in this social media ruled, post-geographical world?
Asolo is a very small town. The art, however, occupies several centuries of history here. Many artists stopped this way, from the poet Robert Browning to Freya Stark. From Hermann Nitsch to Nam June Paik, to name a few. A medieval village still intact, with no franchising and fakeness. Everything is on a small scale. Since I came to live in this place I felt the need to contribute to its preservation, thereby facilitating the exchange with arts. For two years I directed a festival of films on art and after that I took over the direction at Galleria Browning. Here, we are far away from any commercial logic. There are around 200 inhabitants of the village. What I am looking for is to stimulate a no-profit conviviality that begins with an opening of whatever and ends in a “tavern” with a glass of wine, local food and a friendly chat. What I want to convey is that art is not a market price, but a way to bring people together, create friendship, dialogue, debate, awareness. The artists I’ve met in the past two years have been very happy to contribute to this vision. Asolo is a perfect place for this. I do not know how long I will keep directing the gallery or living in Asolo, but for the time I’m here I will try to contribute to the life of the village in this spirit. Italy is full of similar villages that are in the process of being abandoned, as they don’t have the speed of the world. Yet it’s paradoxical that in some countries they rebuild these realities as many dioramas of a Sunday afternoon.
‘Dis / close’, Book by Ng Sai Kit, Osage, 2014. Essay by Steve Bisson
And we’ve heard mumblings about ‘PHOTOSYNTHESIS’. We are under the impression that you are working on one of the most promising photography and curatorial platform we’ve seen for a while. Can you divulge any more…?
The idea behind Photosynthesis is to engage our huge following in the creation of a very accessible thematic archive on photography. We all spend a lot of time on the Internet. However the time we devote to research is increasingly reduced. At least for me it is. Thus we wish to provide to our readers a simplified access to selected information, while encouraging contextually a real exchange between people.
How did you fall in love with visual arts and photography? What’s the best piece of advice you could give to an aspiring photographer or curator?
Well it’s not easy to answer this question in a few words. The visual arts have affected me as an opportunity to understand more about myself. The way we represent the world says a lot about us, and our inner landscape. We are what we see. Here’s my first tip for an aspiring photographer. To a curator I would say firstly try to become an artist.
Do you have a favourite photographer you’ve discovered through Urbanautica?
Yes me. I do not have a favourite photographer. What we look at is transformed with ourselves. So no image is ever really the same to two people. The moment that we look at it, it ceases to belong to those who have made it. Like any story, once told, it lives its own life. It’s curious, when you read a story it is as if you were re-writing it. I can therefore say that I am my favourite photographer. Also I guess the best photographer is someone who I can meet every day and who speaks to my heart as if he/she knew what I needed in that moment. I like to think of being able to meet a different one every day. And fortunately this still happens to me. Even with unknown photographers. And they are precisely those who I prefer to meet. We have to put ourselves in a position of listening, and the world will surprise us always. And maybe that’s why often the photographers that have impressed me were women, because of their natural predisposition to accept life.
'Ocean Beach', Book by Douglas Ljunkgvist, Kehrer Verlag, 2013. Essay by Steve Bisson
Who do you think are the most exciting artists working with photography right now? Who’s really pushing the boundaries?
Here too I would like to be provocative. I believe that like never before humanity, even in photography, is pushing its boundaries. The point is that we do not know where. The nihilistic prophecy has come true. There is no future without a purpose. So I think photography is more useful to those who make it rather than to those who consume it. We’ve explored almost everything that was out there to be discovered. We must now find ourselves. If this is true then photography is a good exercise to find the right fit within the world, no matter who is watching you.
And finally, carte blanche – anything else you’d like to add?
Yes, I wish everyone a Happy New Year! Be your change!
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