Less images of visual phenomena than of perception itself, Catarsi by Massimo Leardini presents a world beyond the depicted. Dreamlike images and harmonious structures of glowing greys are firmly rooted in an underexposed narrative extracted from the realms of the photographer's seaside hometown of Cattolica in Italy. A personal horizon of infinite Adriatic sea and sunlight play a cameo role here. Catarsi is a journey home, perceived from the freedom of seeing it simultaneously from far away and up close.
Leardini’s exquisite handling of effervescent lighting conditions reveal a poetic sensibility in which man and family become traces in a larger composition. As in the literature of Giacomo Leopardi, also born on the shores of the Adriatic, elements of nature create a window to ambiguously unanswered metaphysical questions. In the photographer's abstraction of a particular Italian landscape into a personal aesthetics, there is always a fine balance between transcendence and the profane. However, the optics at play, integrating personal and collective memory, seize nothing less than the luminous allegria of life.
The edition has been sold out since 2018 but due to demand, we are making a very limited number of pristine First Edition books available to collectors. These will be the final copies available and there will be no further editions.
First Edition
500 copies
112 pages - 51 mono plates, 5 colour plates
18.5 cm x 25.0 cm
Hot foil embossed printed textured hardcover
Offset printing
Éditions du LIC 2015
ISBN 978-82-93341-13-0
Also available
Catarsi - Archive Copy
Catarsi - Collectors Edition
