Bio

Christian Basetti, born in 1979, fine art photographer, I live in Milan. Driven by a constant desire for adventure and exploration I face solo trips around the world to capture the best views of the landscapes and cities. So, the passion for photography and the exploratory adventure becomes an indissoluble binomial where one cannot exist without the other. But since 2016, this passion turns into something more special, risky and intriguing. I started to researc ancient decadent places, trying to give voice to these structures full of melancholic charm. Secret and silent worlds that exist in a dimension suspended both in the present and in the past, out of time. My subjects are predominantly historical Italian palaces that still hermetically preserve all their corrupt charm. A forgotten splendor that keeps all the ancient legacy of the Italian artistic tradition. These environments represent a challenge and each has its own degree of attention, as they are often difficult to access and trace. Hidden and rare places that could disappear due to the wear of time, or due to demolitions or renovations that will erase their original melancholy history. Palaces that, in my imagination, it is as if they were narcissistic entities destined to oblivion in search of someone able to give voice to them and transmit for one last time their lost glory. The project "Forgotten Art-chitectures" came to life. "Art-chitectures" is a term that I conceived to merge in a word a creative photographic style linked to the world of abandoned places in decay: art and architecture. The approach with which I photograph this places is artistic. I don't limit myself to shot the desolate scenes with an exclusively documentary spirit, but I always introduce a careful personal "fine art" vision, inspired by italian painter Caravaggio: lights and shadows blend with the environments of ancient times, as in a painting. This photography genre conveys discordant and unsettling emotions: is this connotation negative, where the beauty of these places is corrupted by darkness and abandonment, or is it positive, where the beauty keeps its pride, despite the wear of nature and time? Like I’m a “ Chronoreporter” I try to preserve in my shots the melancholic beauty of these places, buildings which will be most likely demolished or the elements will make them crumble upon themselves. All treasure projects that the public will no longer be able to know, swept away by time. As I said Caravaggio is my great influencer. My intent was to combine in a single recipe the common components in my photographic genre: adventure, architecture, technique and aesthetics ... above all aesthetics. I felt that something was missing anyway, the secret ingredient to distinguish myself from other explorers and photographers. The ingredient was Caravaggio. Caravaggio is considered the first great photographer with his technique based on the study of light and darkness. So I created a personal stylistic “Caravaggesque” imprint with lights piercing the darkness of the scene and an editing reaching the quality of a painting. Which best source of inspiration could I find to invent this bridge between urban photography and painting? An Italian photographer who immortalizes Italian subjects inspired by a great Italian...is my homage made in Italy to our ancient tradition. The great Italian artist used marginalized subjects of society, such as old beggars and prostitutes, and then glorified them in transpositions of saints and madonnas. And even his still lifes showed fruits in the advanced ripening phase, with atmospheres of autumn decay. My subjects, decrepit like those of Caravaggio, are inspired by him coming to assume almost the quality of a painting, transforming something decadent and inanimate into a work where dominant shadows and lights arouse discordant emotions in the viewer, caused by an ancient beauty wrapped up in darkness.