© Olivo Barbieri / Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC
Despite the fact that water has never, yet, been a primary cause of violent conflict, a recent OECD briefing warned that “water-related tensions” threatened to emerge at local, national, international and even global levels. It is timely, then, that Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri’s latest work The Waterfall Project is motivated in part by recognition of the cultural and political importance of water in the 21st century: “I wanted to look at the natural environment and, before even oil, the most important liquid in the world is water.”
“But it is very difficult to see water because when you look at a river or at the sea – you see something flat. The only way to see or visualise water is to take a picture of a waterfall – so I started The Waterfall Project.”
“The places where I took the pictures are all very important areas in the world: Victoria Falls in Africa, Iguazu in South America, Khone Papeng in
“Also I very soon discovered that the falls survive because of mass tourism – without it they would probably be lost. They are like parks; but much more similar to Disneyland than
© Olivo Barbieri / Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC
Barbieri is best known for the innovative and distinctive Site Specific series of aerial photographs of major world cities including
These techniques are brought to bear on The Waterfall Project with the result that, for example, the 19 million cubic feet of water that cross the crest of the Victoria Falls (per minute) now appear as a pin sharp trickle amidst fields of white haze. Miniature tourists seem to pick their way through forests of cauliflower; swathes of land and water are re-made as colour-saturated smears. If aerial photography is conceived as a means of reconnaissance or surveillance, then these pictures most surely fail.
© Olivo Barbieri / Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC
Barbieri of course has a different agenda – “My idea is to see the falls for the first time, like something new, not like something that has existed for centuries and millennia. I think in The Waterfall Project you can understand that there is something different, but you don’t know exactly what. It is very important because it is a way to see anew these very famous places and areas of the world.”
“You can see it anew; take photographs again, without producing the same old pictures. You have the possibility to take different, interesting pictures – pictures that make you curious to understand…We can consider the world anew. We can see the world anew.”
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The Waterfall Project – Olivo Barbieri (Damiani, £29.99)