The Night Face Up
Book Review
Artist: Mauro Fiorito
Photobook: The Night Face Up
Publisher: 89 Books
Specs: Softcover, 102 pages, 165 x 240 mm
Price: €42
Coming from a fashion and film background, Italian photographer Mauro Fiorito has now published his first monograph – The Night Face Up. Presenting a deeply personal narrative that reflects on the loss of his mother through daily life photographs of the female figures in his life alongside the diverse environments that surround them. As he states, “I was traveling back to my childhood through the landscape where the memories were born and where I was connected to my mother. Melancholy, sadness, and joy come together, like a road trip with a romantic soundtrack.”
Browsing through the pages of Fiorito’s book, one can notice a connecting factor between the diverse photographs – a high intensity of grain. The experience of such grain is further highlighted by the choice of textured paper, enhancing the tactile encounter with the photographs. In a way, the grain and paper seem to be disabling our optic way of looking and instead invite us to engage with the photographs in a haptic manner. Through constantly touching the photographs when flipping the pages, we begin to see that Fiorito is not necessarily presenting us with reality. Instead, he focuses on capturing feelings as a means of reconstruction of a self-narrative, a way to make sense of the piercing loss and grief.
“(…) Fiorito is not necessarily presenting us with reality. Instead, he focuses on capturing feelings as a means of reconstruction of a self-narrative, a way to make sense of the piercing loss and grief.”
As Leo Tolstoy once proclaimed: “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” His words very much resonate with the way Fiorito is working as mental associations are formulated into spreads where women are portrayed through a loving and tender lens; something that is rarely seen when we are subjected to the male gaze. Primarily because Fiorito’s deeply personal approach shows a great deal of vulnerability and sentimentality alternated with moments of happiness.
“(…) Mental associations are formulated into spreads where women are portrayed through a loving and tender lens; something that is rarely seen when we are subjected to the male gaze.”
The Night Face Up is a delicate and honest insight into a post-loss masculine identity. Formed out of memories and feelings, we realize that the book was formed out of an urgency later serving a therapeutic role both in relation to the artist and potentially for the viewer. Fiorito concludes his book with a poem, inviting us to reflect back on what we have just seen…
My heart leaps up when I behold
A tree, a snake, a rock,
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
I remember, I remember,
The fir trees dark and high;
I remember, I remember,
The house was cold and shine.
Time let me play and daydream,
The happy yard, singing as the farm was home.
I remember, I remember,
when I was lying down and all became a burning mist.
I remember, I remember,
The kiss in the grass.
Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
The Night Face Up is available for purchase here.
Mauro Fiorito
is a Paris-based photographer and videomaker who studied Film Studies in Roma. Besides working on fashion editorials and commercials, he also works on his personal projects that are highlighted with diverse analogue techniques and personal associations.
89 Books
was established in 2018 by photographer Mauro D’Agati and curator Kateryna Filyuk. It specializes in photo books and artist books. 89books is committed to the discovery and experimental publication of limited-edition photo books of different forms and contents.
Text by Linda Zhengová
Curator of Discarded Magazine & XXX
She is a photographer and writer dealing with the topics of trauma, gender and sexuality.