Sebastiano Tecchio - Perpetual Change

Sebastiano Tecchio - Perpetual Change

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    Showing at WEND September and October 2022

    West Seattle Art Walk September 8 & October 13

    I always dreamt of living in a place surrounded by water. When in 2016 I moved to Seattle, I knew I had found my place.

    As a documentarian, my films have been deeply rooted in reality, having worked for years on issues of world poverty and the threat of climate change. And yet, as a photographer I rarely find interest in portraying the world as it is. Rather, I’m drawn to looking at the abstract side of life, capturing through the camera’s lens what the naked eye is not accustomed to seeing.

    At its essence, photography is the interplay between light and time. And when the subject is water, with its reflective nature, through the use of varying exposures, I am able to give visual form to Japanese writer Yukio Mishima’s observation that "...things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed.”

    What is apparently still is in continuous motion. I know and understand this from my own experience. For a period of my life, I resisted change. I attempted to hold on to what made me feel safe in order to avoid the unknowns that were before me. Observing the ongoing evolutions and revolutions of nature has helped me understand that change is not only inevitable: it’s an integral and indelible part of life. Observing the world’s perpetual change through my camera has become a therapeutic meditation of sorts, one that has helped me to find stillness in the motion of my life, embracing the inevitability of change, and the richness that it brings.

    All the photos in this show were taken in and around the Seattle area. They represent single and non-repeatable instances of change in light and motion. All seven images were shot with a full-frame digital reflex camera using a technique I call “Still Motion”, one that I only recently discovered actually has an official name: ICM (intentional camera movement). It consists of purposely moving the camera during a medium to long exposure. Instead of taking pictures with my Nikon, I’m actually attempting to paint with it.

    What you see here is what I saw.

    About Sebastiano Tecchio

    Sebastiano Tecchio is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a photographer. Born in Italy, he now resides in Seattle with his wife Stephanie.

    www.stillmotion.space

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