The Italian photographer’s images take us into a strange, disturbing, surreal universe, isolated from the world.
“My name is winter and I talk about coldness” is Paolo Emanuele Barretta’s tagline on his Behance account. A former student of photography, post-production and communications, Barretta started out drawing before moving into visual storytelling and portraiture. Since then, he has been probing the human psyche, where the pangs of loneliness, isolation, melancholy, sadness, dreams and nostalgia that characterise his tormented existence come to life in an alternative, timeless world. “What I have always sought is the ability to fully perceive the world around me, to create a bridge linking my individuality to the geometry of the cosmos,” he explains.
Dreamlike Visions
This budding thirty-something is one of those multi-hatted artists, or more accurately, slashers. He’s a digital content creator under the name I am Winter, a teacher on Domestika, an online course platform, an e-commerce photographer in production studios, and even a music lover in the making. This last activity enables him to travel to unknown worlds through personal listening and piano playing. While his artistic development as a photographer has been tumultuous, recognition and awards have been quick to follow. His work has been exhibited in France, Italy, Ireland, Australia and India. In 2021, he was awarded the Portrait Of Humanity prize by the British Journal of Photography. In the meantime, he has multiplied his collaborations with brands such as Gucci, Versace, Max Mara, Prada and many others. “Over time, I’ve built up a community on social networks with whom I share my work, which is characterised by strong chromatic, stylistic and emotional research,” he explains.
Self-knowledge
His portfolio is imbued with surrealism, onirism and symbolism, with green and red often predominating. There’s something Lynchian about this young virtuoso, even if he says he draws his cinematic and photographic inspiration from Robert Eggers, Richard Kelly, Edward Hopper and Gregory Crewdson. “I see my artistic style as the bridge that connects me to the world, helping me to communicate where words fail.” And his eclectic projects are in line with his field of exploration. While he is about to release his first music album, in November 2023 he published his book “I am Winter” (Éd. Psicografici), in which he tells his story through his photographs. “There are an infinite number of versions of the same individual, with so many nuances that it’s incredibly difficult to define oneself as self-aware (…) The confusion within me led me to find in photography a fair exchange between what I needed to express and a blurred response from the world.”
I Am Winter de Paolo Emanuele Barretta
Psicografici Editore, novembre 2023
25 €
psicograficieditore.com/shop/libri/i-am-winter/
Italie