Across Cultures: Mario Sorrenti

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Mario Sorrenti

stern Fotografie Nr 72 presents fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti, the accompanying Talent Booklet 5 shows the work of Pari Dukovic.

Sorrenti's pictures of Kate Moss, the book claims, "changed fashion photography. Because Mario Sorrenti removed the frontier between in front of and behind the camera." Since I'm at a complete loss as to what that could possibly mean ... I've decided to simply observe what Sorrenti's photographs did to me. And, I feel his shots of Kate Moss are just great, especially the one on the cover to which my eyes return again and again and again.

Of the other pics in this tome I often did not know what to make. Did I like the ones I liked because they were good photographs or because I was simply fond of the looks of the model? Why would I want to look at a pregnant woman, her face painted like a clown, in a bathtub? Or at a human skull placed on a folding chair? Or at a guy dressed in leather whose head is wrapped in a transparent plastic bag? No idea, really ...

Sometimes, when I do not know what to think of certain photographs, I turn to people more knowledgeable than I am. Jochen Siemens writes: "The intangible element in Sorrenti's style indicates, at the same time, the quality of his work: free of any ideology and, in the best sense of the word, eclectic." I can't say that this is helpful but Siemens then quotes Sorrenti and I now start to understand his obsession with images: "I was obsessed by looking at pictures. I looked for elements from Robert Frank, examined photos by Helmut Newton and Bruce Weber. I was fascinated by reportage photography. From all this I wanted to develop my own style." Well, he certainly did.

Sorrenti seems to be driven, a maniac. Siemens explains: "The speed at which Sorrenti works is consistent with an observation by Jean Baudrillard: 'When something wants to be photographed, the reason is, of all things, that it doesn't want to disclose its meaning or reflect on itself.'" Apply that to the celebrities Sorrenti "day and night, without delay" photographs and you will begin to understand that a picture is just a picture is just a picture, and nothing more.

Mario Sorrenti

stern Fotografie Nr 72