THE RIVER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
ALESSANDRO DURINI DI MONZA
20 - 29 NOVEMBER 2019
A new exhibition of Alessandro Durini Di Monza's work
at the Afridi Gallery.
Drawing on two divorced landscapes of opposing climes, one the river bank of the Nile, the other the frozen lake of Silversee, Switzerland. Durini studies two scenes shaped by water's ephemeral nature. The ceaseless movement of a surging river is at once a measure of the course of time and, in its unfailing continuity, a manifestation of timelessness itself. By stemming the eternal flow with his camera's lens, each image becomes a snapshot suspended in time. Durini halts and so heightens, the running water's more profound meaning.
The Egyptian examples take on larger terrains whilst the images of ice are visions of a microcosm, yet Durini's work draws out unifying elements. Any one image of the ice might contain a universe sliced through by pale streaks and splintered by cracks. Chance markings on a minute scale, with their pyramidal forms, echo the monumental, man-made structures that have long punctuated Egypt's dusty expanse.
Alessandro Durini di Monza is self taught. He grew up in Italy before moving to the United States, where he studied Economics and Law. He was first introduced to photography by his grandfather the diplomat Ercole Durini di Monza.