Open Air is the third Ex Urban series. Its first picture, taken in Iceland, is also its primal lifeblood. The title might seem too obvious for a photographic project about cranes, as these are always open-air. However, this collection is not intended to have a generic outdoor subject. Not by chance, the photo is perhaps the most naturalistic (and the nearest to the polar circle) I’ve ever taken. I still remember the dirty look of a shocked passing tourist while I was ecstatically looking at the horizon: in that moment, the most beautiful and majestic geysir was showing its best behind my back; yet, I was photographing the void. He couldn’t imagine my surprise when I spotted such a beautiful crane appearing scratchy before the boundless white mountains.
It’s a distinct feel, breathtaking adrenaline and suspension of time, when I find myself standing in front of such immensity, a space so wide to make you disappear. Indeed, even the greatest effort will never allow you to take part to the magnitude of infinity. It’s pure acceptance of the experience of not being.
Open Air was created to collect all the pictures where a crane stands out on endless landscapes, open, astonishing, overwhelming, sublime. Cranes do not form part of the landscape; they fill it, as humans burst onto the scene with their passage and presence.
