Young Sicilians

Massimo Gurciullo,  born in Sicily. In 1982, he moved to Paris and began his professional career. The nudes and portraits have been the main subjects of his work for many years (more than 30).

Exhibits in France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Switzerland. Makes photography books, the first “NUDI” presents the nude works of the period 1982-1983. “Portraits Cycle N.º3” is a handmade artist’s book in 100 signed and numbered copies. It is a book about portraits in the studio, an analogue work that Gurciullo personally prints in the darkroom. Then comes the 2012 book “Portraits… 30 ans”, which collects the first 30 years of his studio portraits.

In 2013, he leaves the studio and goes into the street with a digital device. After four years, the book “Sicily” is published. He starts wandering around the city with a Fuji X100, and afterwards, he finds the ideal tool in the Fuji XF10.

“Young Sicilians” is an extract from “Sicily”, the more general work that I have been pursuing since 2017, the year of the release of the first edition of the book. Subsequently, “Sicily” was transformed into an annual publication, a “private diary” in the form of a large format magazine. In 2024, number 5 has just been released. I see so much fashion on the streets, sometimes it’s just as surprising as fashion shows. My XF10 is very quick to catch women walking. Running around the city with a small compact camera in your pocket is a lot of fun and makes you stay close to people. With a large reflex, it would be impossible.

Sicily is my homeland, and I showed on my way. I look for a way to interpret the spirit of the insights of Jean Baudrillard, and the way I take it reminds me of the improvisation of jazz musicians when they start playing and then leave notes free to seek new ways with improvisation.

Photography that interests me now is the one that has the total freedom of the gaze. Subversive and rebellious, a wild photography that defies categorization and labels.

My photography is a photographic literature that bases its existence between memory and poetry. Between the real and the imaginary. It ceases to be functional to reality, remaining functional in itself, the act of taking photographs, and the image produced in some way is the irruption of reality into the reality we know. To the end, the important thing is always the emotional experience. (The Street Photographers Book, Messico 2016).

“To settle down. Like a new language that claims to be understood. Massimo Gurciullo is an active witness of an era that has abandoned the mists of the dawn to become clear reality, luminous and obscure, contradictory and linear. “Sicily” is his statement, his declaration of intent, something to deal with.”
Giuseppe Cicozzetti (Scriptphotography)

The images evoke freedom and movement. Why this choice?
Photographs can be constructed or encountered. What makes photography a unique language is its accidental nature.

This characteristic has something to do with the invisible or with what we do not see and which we, therefore, call invisible, but we must also let the images live from their essence. Any attempt at aesthetic appropriation and explanation of images is only an exercise in style, whereas photography has a sense of complexity.

Why did you choose black and white?
Black and white is my language, always. Someone said that life is in color, but the truth is in black and white.
(Interview from Fisheye Magazine (France, 2019)