Artist’s Statement
PHOTOGRAM
The series “Backlight” is composed of leaves collected from the vegetation of the Cerrado Biome, delimited in a space of four hectares located in the municipality of Sete Lagoas, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The iconic shape of the leaves of this biome, fixed on paper, are like fingerprints, fragments of a plant identity. Occupying 24% of the national territory, the Cerrado Biome is the second largest Brazilian vegetable Amazon, the world’s richest tropical savannah in biodiversity. Comprising three of the largest hydrographic basins in South America, it concentrates no less than a third of the national biodiversity and 5% of the world’s flora and fauna.*
PHOTOGRAM TECHNIQUE
Fotograma is a technique of image production without the use of camera obscura and having as a medium the light for the formation of the image. Simply place an object on photosensitive media and expose to light. After the chemical processing has a negative image of the contour of the objects used. A pioneer in photographic development, William Henry Fox Talbot produced frames before even the “invention” of this technique. Anna Atkins, the British botanist, was the first person to realize the potential of photography in scientific works, using the cyanotype process for the production of her frames, producing the first picture book in history with photographic images in 1843, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.
*Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply
Embrapa – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation
Artist Bio: Reporter photographic and visual artist, Guilherme Bergamini is Brazilian and graduated in Journalism. For more than two decades, he has developed projects with photography and the various narrative possibilities that art offers. The works of the artist dialogue between memory and social political criticism. He believes in photography as the aesthetic potential and transforming agent of society. Awarded in national and international competitions, Guilherme Bergamini participated in collective exhibitions in 28 countries.
