A Lesson in Black and White: An Analysis of Matteo Cirenei’s “Milano”

By Arielle GlaspieENGL 357 - VCL

IntroductionMatteo Cirenei was born and raised in Italy. In addition to

photography, Cirenei also works in the fields of furniture design and corporate identity design. He has lived in Milan for most of his life, and all of the pictures included in this photo essay were inspired by and taken there. Since the early 1990s, Cirenei has been working on a new branch of architecture photography, which he has christened his “photographic research in black and white on architecture” (Cirenei). In this venture, Cirenei focuses on capturing extremely specific pieces of famous architectural works in Milan and other European capitals, which were dubbed “architectural limbo” by Domus magazine (Milano). In addition to architectural limbo, Cirenei purposefully shot his photos with black and white development in mind, using light itself as an almost-physical enhancement of the architecture. This style of photography gives a more aesthetic and abstract feel to the structures by using ambiguity to exclude the overall design of the building (Cirenei), such as in Image 1 below.

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Image 1

Formal AnalysisI will be using concepts and ideas from Scott McCloud’s

“Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” and National Geographic’s “Complete Photography” to study Matteo Cirenei’s “Milano” and bring to light some key principles of the photo essay’s form that may not be initially apparent to the viewer.

McCloud’s TriangleIn his book “Understanding Comics,” Scott McCloud introduces to

his readers the idea of the Big Triangle. In this triangle, the left hand point represents realistic images such as photographs and anatomically correct drawings. The right hand point represents language, which uses letters and words. These two points are crowned by the picture plane, which is made up of squares, circles, and other basic shapes. Using this concept of the Big Triangle, McCloud reveals how every image and picture ever created can be mapped within this model, including the photographs of Matteo Cirenei (McCloud, 51).

Most photographs fit neatly into the left hand realism point of the Big Triangle. This is because the very purpose of a photograph is to capture reality as exactly as possible. But Cirenei chose to use an unusual technique for this photo essay, so his work actually fits in a little differently. Cirenei’s architectural limbo technique creates an abstract atmosphere within the photograph so his images actually look more like an abstract artist’s canvas than architecture. Consequently, Cirenei’s work belongs higher, in between the realistic and picture plane points. Some of his photographs, like Image 1, are even more basic and abstract, and therefore could be place even higher.

Light

“In black and white, the ideas behind the art are communicated more directly. Meaning transcends form.”

-McCloud, 192

Cirenei’s work really reflects the above quote from McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” even though Cirenei is not personally influenced by McCloud. By bypassing the use of color, Cirenei is able to use light itself as a sort of “color” to add an almost-physical extension to the featured architecture, when actually the extension is merely captured shadow (see Image 2 & 3 below). This requires a keen, premeditated awareness of light and how it to best use (Complete, 115). It can be hard to do, especially since the photographer sees the

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world in color while taking the photograph. Cirenei chooses his quality of light very carefully by shooting only on clear days with lots of strong wind (Cirenei). He also uses intense light, such as that obtained when photographing in the middle of the day, to produce “sharp-edged shadows and high contrast” (Complete, 116 & 124) in many of his pictures, adding a rich depth to his

photographs.Positive and Negative Space

Many of Cirenei’s photos focus, not only on capturing an abstract representation of the building, but also on using the sky to emphasize interesting architecture (Cirenei). This correlates with the composition idea of positive and negative space. Cirenei uses “empty space like an object” (Complete, 92) in order to juxtapose the architectural structure (Image 4). In many of his photographs, 3D interpretation of the image is not possible, so the background and the foreground come together and are seen on the same plane. In other words, the picture lacks

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Image 2Image 3

depth, but is more compositionally pleasing because of it (Image 5).Lines

According to McCloud’s “Understanding Comics”, lines in comics and other works of art carry with them an expressive potential (124). The way a line is drawn can affect the emotions of the viewer. The same concept can be applied to photography. Portraits or other pictures where humans or animals are the subject contain many semi-circular or curved lines, which viewers subconsciously translate into warmth and gentleness (McCloud, 125). In contrast, many architectural subjects, with their straight horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines convey timelessness, pride and strength, and dynamic change respectively (McCloud, 125). Because of their rectangular shape many buildings express a sense of conservative rationality (McCloud, 125). However, because of Cirenei’s desire to shoot only specific angles or cuts, and also because of his desire to use positive and negative space, most of these emotional expressions are not present in his work. Instead, Cirenei’s lines lean more towards being honest, direct and just downright random (McCloud 125), as can be seen in Images 4 and 5.

Patterns and TexturesPatterns and textures are not often thought about when it comes

to architecture. Perhaps this is because so many of the structures use vast panes of glass or other smooth-sided materials. Perhaps it is only because we as viewers do not take the time to see these patterns and textures. Whatever the reason, Cirenei does a wonderful job of filling that gap, as can be seen in Images 6 and 7 below. He uses architectural repetition to create “unexpected abstractions of

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otherwise ordinary shapes” and “reinforce[s] the pattern by standing out from it” (Complete, 100).

Word/Picture Combination Unlike many photographers, Cirenei offers no explanations or

context of his pictures. He includes only a location of the building and the year it was taken in. It is entirely up to the viewers to decipher why Cirenei would include these particular photos in his presentation. This offers an initially invigorating, but also perplexing independence to the viewer as to why these particular pictures were included and how they fit into Cirenei‘s idea of “photographic research” (About). There are no stipulations put on the viewer to realize any specific feature within the photo, so the viewer is free to take the photos as they are and interpret them anyway they want. This fits with the artistically abstract style that Cirenei has developed in this essay.

McCloud addresses word/picture combination by dividing it into seven categories (McCloud, 153-5), only one of which is applicable here. By declining to use text to context or explain his photographs, Cirenei places his work solely within the picture specific category. McCloud defines picture specific combinations as situations “where words do little more than add a soundtrack to a visually told sequence” (McCloud, 153). In fact, Cirenei’s text does less than that. Many of Cirenei’s photos can be fully appreciated without knowing where or when they were taken. This is because he uses architecture and buildings as the focus of his work instead of people. Viewers tend to want to relate to or understand the subject of a photo more so when the focus is on an animate object. That need or wish to relate is not as strong in architectural contexts because the focus is on an inanimate object.

Content AnalysisBecause “Milano” is an essay as well as a photograph collection,

an analysis of its content in addition to its form is necessary. Here, I will apply pathos, ethos, and logos and evaluate the purpose of Cirenei’s “Milano.”

Ethos and PathosCirenei collaborates with three separate magazines: Domus (in

which “Milano” is published), Casabella, and Interni. The very fact that his photographs are published in public magazines instead of on a blog or other dubious Internet source enforces Cirenei’s credibility as a photo essayist. One interesting point I noticed is that Cirenei never

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writes his own articles. The descriptions of his work I obtained for this analysis were all written from a third party, never first hand by Cirenei himself. This dampens his credibility somewhat in my eyes because the information I read is already second hand. I suppose from a different viewpoint, one could argue that having a third party write the article and add his/her input would add rather than detract credibility since the writer of the article is, in a sense, issuing their own analysis of Cirenei’s work. Still, I believe that “Milano” would have been more impacting if Cirenei had written his own article. The writing author of “Milano” has, after all, been hired by Domus to make their article look spectacular.

Reflectively, Cirenei’s emotional appeal to the viewer to stop and look is stunning. His abstract style uses light and shadow in a cohesive manner, uniting two seemingly opposite forces. Cirenei is not using this appeal to persuade, but rather to present, much as an artist or teacher would do. The viewer is free to take or leave whatever viewpoint or opinion they want.Evaluation of Purpose

Photo essays are created to make a point in pictures. They are used to convey an idea to the viewers. I believe the message Cirenei is transmitting through “Milano” is to not be afraid to look at the world in a different way. By using architectural limbo to ignore the entire structure, or big picture, of a building, Cirenei created an unusual and sometimes not instantly recognizable piece of art. Yes, that’s right, art. As I said when I categorized Cirenei’s works in McCloud’s Big Triangle, “Milano” actually belongs in between the realistic and picture plane points, instead of firmly in the realism point along with almost every other photograph. This is because Cirenei uses architectural limbo to “paint” an abstract canvas with photographic film. Cirenei may not have initially intended his “photographic research in black and white on architecture” (Cirenei) to snowball into an entirely new photographic genre, but after ten years of research that’s exactly what “Milano” evolved into (see Image 8).

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Works Cited“About“. Matteo Cirenei Photography and Communication. Web site. http://matteocirenei.wordpress.com/about/.

“Cirenei, Matteo.” Facebook. Web site. http://m.facebook.com/MatteoCireneiPhotography?v=info&expand=1&nearby&refid=17.

“Milano- Matteo Cirenei.” Domus. Web Site.http://www.domusweb.it/en/photo-essays/2014/02/04/matteo_cirenei_milan.html.

“Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.” McCloud, Scott. Harper Collins Publisher. 1993. NY, NY.

“Complete Photography.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society. 2011. Washington DC.

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