The Art of Seeing Transforms Objects — Patrizia Zelano
About Patrizia Zelano
Patrizia Zolano is an acclaimed Italian photographer who lives in Italy near the Adriatic Sea. Her work focuses on more than water, but natural light is a unifying feature in all her photographs. Her work invites viewers to look beyond the immediacy of the image. On the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast, we focus on her series Acqua Alta a Venezia (High Water in Venice), a series inspired by the 2019 flood that caused great damage in Venice. Patrizia's photos of waterlogged books is a reminder that beautiful things can arise from adversity. The images of books depict both destruction and transformation.
Exploring Photography, Flooded Books, and Plastica Animistica
Patrizia talks briefly about Italy and how she became interested in photography. We explore her decision to collect books soaked by the 2019 flood in Venice and how she photographed them. They held tragic beauty. They reminded her of still life paintings and became relics full of meaning. Another series she created was Plastica Animistica in which she explored the fragile lightness of plastic. Through this ephemeral installation she tries to transform what disturbed her into something contemplative, almost sacred. Finally, we explored the power of the photograph to create images that transforms the viewer.
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A note to listeners: English is not the native language of today's guest. She has made much effort so you can understand her. If you have difficulty, please don't miss what she has to say. Go to her page at Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast and follow along with the transcript.
00:00:24 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Patrizia Zolano. Patrizia is a photographer who lives in Italy near the Adriatic Sea. On this podcast, we will focus on her series Acqua Alta a Venezia (High Water in Venice). It's a series inspired by the 2019 flood that caused great damage in Venice. Patrizia's photos of waterlogged books is a reminder that beautiful things can arise from adversity.
00:01:00 Pam Ferris-Olson Patrizia Zolano is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com. The podcast engages artists in conversation about their work and explores their connection with the water. Through their stories, Wo(men) Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect water and all the creatures that depend on it.
00:01:26 Pam Ferris-Olson I am most pleased to welcome Patrizia Zolano to the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. Patrizia is an acclaimed Italian photographer. Her work invites viewers to look beyond the immediacy of the image. Her photographic series of books transformed by the 2019 flood of Venice depicts both destruction and transformation.
00:01:51 Welcome, Patricia. I guess I say, ‘Ciao.’ While your work focuses on more than water, natural light is a unifying feature in your photographs. I'm grateful that you joined me on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast to tell us something about yourself, Italy, and your work.
00:02:12 Pam Ferris-Olson While your work extends beyond the Acqua Alta a Venizia (High Water in Venice) series, I hope that you don't mind if we focus on that work as it speaks volumes about your photographic eye, as well as water and climate change. Let's begin by talking about Italy.
00:02:33 I don't know how many of our listeners have visited Italy, so I think it would be good if we began by having you tell us something about Italy. What fascinated you growing up in northern Italy near Lake Garda?
00:02:47 Patrizia Zelano Italians are often called a people of navigators, perhaps because the sea living without us, teaching us movement, nostalgia and the return, the endless search for horizon. Italy lives through the sea, a place where light meets water, and beauty with art architecture become an endless journey.
00:03:21 Pam Ferris-Olson Were you always focused on the detail of things or did that come when you took up photography?
00:03:30 Patrizia Zelano My attention to the detail has grown up with me. Photography came into my life like a sudden revelation. Photography gives me the freedom to explore the themes that truly move me and my own rhythm. It's a young form of art but its meanings are much deeper and more intellectual than people often think.
00:03:56 Pam Ferris-Olson I was surprised to discover that Venice is actually not a single place but a group of 118 islands lying in the bay of the Adriatic Sea. Water must be a constant threat to everything in Venice. How did you decide which books to take?
00:04:15 Patrizia Zelano The choice was not rational. I just saved what I could. Every book, no matter what it was about, felt important to me. I don't make any distinction. Each one carried its own wisdom. I chose to focus on books because they hold memory, knowledge, faith, and ideals.
Our culture is built on what is breathing in them. The book itself is a powerful symbol. During the flood, the books became a living image of our fragility of both environmental and cultural collapse.
00:05:10 Patrizia Zelano In my studio, under natural light, the books turned into sculptural objects. They reminded me of still life paintings from the 17th and 19th century, and also some contemporary artists. They were no longer damaged things but relics full of meaning. I could feel their tragic beauty, their power to evoke. Each wrinkled page looking like a relic, like an inner landscape. Through them, I created a kind of journey through art history, from ancient times to the contemporary world.
00:05:54 Patrizia Zelano The books were indeed very delicate because of the water damage and they tore easily. That fragility definitely caused some challenges but it also made the process of saving and transforming them into photographs even more meaningful. And actually, with all those damaged covers, spines, and pages that I heard story in truth.
00:06:29 Pam Ferris-Olson They were indeed beautiful. I was struck by the lighting and this sculptural elegance of what most people would just throw out. So thank you so much for doing that.
00:06:46 Patrizia Zelano Oh, good, thank you.
00:06:48 Pam Ferris-Olson So Italy is surrounded on three sides by water. Like Venice, Italy faces many challenges related to tides, storms, and plastic pollution. In your series Plastica Animistica, it appears life has been breathed into plastic material. How is this series meant to engage us in a conversation about the changing world?
00:07:12 Patrizia Zelano Yes, absolutely. Both the series are born from the same awareness that everything is in transformation in nature and within ourselves. In High Water [in Venice], I witnessed the power of water, overwhelming memory and beauty. In series Plastica Animistica I face another kind of turbulence, the wind and the fragile lightness of plastic, a material that belongs to our contemporary condition. Through this ephemeral installation, I try to transform what disturbed me into something contemplative, almost sacred.
00:07:58 Patrizia Zelano Both projects open a conversation about change, about how the stability of the world is also shaping the way we see, feel, and understand reality. I want to make it clear that Plastica Animistica is not a praise of plastic. It is rather an attempt to transcend an element I don't love, the wind, through a symbolic and poetic act.
00:08:33 Patrizia Zelano The installation I created with the light plastic becomes a ritual gesture of dialogue with nature, which is a concept in my work. Through art, I try to transform what is uncomfortable or unsettling into something that can become at least acceptable, even beautiful for a moment.
00:09:03 Pam Ferris-Olson Patricia, as we approach the end of the podcast, I thought you might offer advice on how to create an impactful photograph. If someone wanted to use their cell phone to make a statement about the environment, how do you suggest they go about creating an image?
00:09:21 Patrizia Zelano The power of a photographer, the photograph, doesn't lie in a technique but in the gaze. Even with the phone, if you look with awareness, you can create an image that transforms. We don't need to take beautiful photographs. We need to take meaningful ones. It is the act of seeing, not in the device that reveals a good shot.
00:09:52 Pam Ferris-Olson Thank you Patricia for being on the Wo(men) Mind the Water podcast. I'm really grateful that you're here in spite of your accident and the time you took, because you felt your English was not very good, to write the answers and read them for us. I will post a transcript so people can read if they have any questions.
00:10:15 Pam Ferris-Olson It has really been a pleasure to talk with you. I urge everyone to view the video version of this podcast to see a few of your photographs. You will be amazed how something that people might otherwise discard has actually become a thing of beauty and makes you think about antiquity and change and maybe hopefully influence you in the way that you see disasters or what might be viewed as a disaster.
00:10:49 Pam Ferris-Olson I will post the address of Patricia's site at womenmindthewater.com so you can investigate Patricia and her work more closely.
00:10:58 Patrizia Zelano Pam, thank you for the invitation and for this thoughtful conversation.
I hope it inspired the reflection and awareness and maybe also a trip to Italy. Bye. Thank you.
00:11:18 Pam Ferris-Olson I'd like to remind listeners that I've been speaking with Patrizia Zolano, an Italian photographer. Her series of photographs of waterlogged books goes beyond a portrait of damaged goods, and it is an engaging reminder that grace can rise from adversary.
00:11:36 Pam Ferris-Olson Patrizia is the latest guest on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenmindthewater.com and on YouTube.
