BEHIND THE SHOT
— The stories behind locations and shooting —
- SANCTUS PAULUS -
PIEMONTE
2019
- SANCTUS PAULUS -
PIEMONTE
2019
The church is part of an ancient hermitage located in the north of Italy. In ancient times the hermitage was isolated from the urban centers so that the monks could live a life in silence and prayer. Getting to the hermitage was not particularly difficult, but since there is no practicable path by car, I had to reach this isolated hermitage walking up a wooded hill for about 15 minutes.
The external structure showed the clear signs of the time having been built in the seventeenth century. After climbing over a high gate I was able to enter through a side door of the building. Inside the high vault echoed my steps and inside there were still typical religious elements: the benches of the devotees, the marble altar and even an old statue of a saint truncated at the neck.
Inside there were two elements that caught my attention: the statue and a powerful beam of light coming from the high windows.
The statue was a very particular element that would have given uniqueness to the shot, since many times the statues are stolen or are placed on unreachable shelves.
The idea was to exploit the beam of light by illuminating the statue as if it were struck by a divine ray.
Initially I wanted to get a shot with a classic central composition, but inside the shot, the beam of light arrived in an area that compositionally was not good.
I tried with the statue positioned centrally in the shot but it was a “too obvious” protagonist. So I stopped and tried to figure out the direction of the light. I would take the picture when the beam would arrive on the second third of the photo with a diagonal cut, from left to upper right to lower, and I would place the statue exactly there, the protagonist illuminated by the divine light reflector.
After more than an hour of waiting, during which I took the opportunity to take a few more shots around, I returned to my position and I took the photo I was looking for and the final result definitely conquered me.
To complete everything I also wanted to find a catchy title: I then thought of a title in Latin that would take up the Italian religious environment and I did a research on historical religious characters beheaded. And here is the choice of Saint Paul, instead, Sanctus Paulus, the beheaded martyr.
The church is part of an ancient hermitage located in the north of Italy. In ancient times the hermitage was isolated from the urban centers so that the monks could live a life in silence and prayer. Getting to the hermitage was not particularly difficult, but since there is no practicable path by car, I had to reach this isolated hermitage walking up a wooded hill for about 15 minutes.
The external structure showed the clear signs of the time having been built in the seventeenth century. After climbing over a high gate I was able to enter through a side door of the building. Inside the high vault echoed my steps and inside there were still typical religious elements: the benches of the devotees, the marble altar and even an old statue of a saint truncated at the neck.
Inside there were two elements that caught my attention: the statue and a powerful beam of light coming from the high windows.
The statue was a very particular element that would have given uniqueness to the shot, since many times the statues are stolen or are placed on unreachable shelves.
The idea was to exploit the beam of light by illuminating the statue as if it were struck by a divine ray.
Initially I wanted to get a shot with a classic central composition, but inside the shot, the beam of light arrived in an area that compositionally was not good.
I tried with the statue positioned centrally in the shot but it was a “too obvious” protagonist. So I stopped and tried to figure out the direction of the light. I would take the picture when the beam would arrive on the second third of the photo with a diagonal cut, from left to upper right to lower, and I would place the statue exactly there, the protagonist illuminated by the divine light reflector.
After more than an hour of waiting, during which I took the opportunity to take a few more shots around, I returned to my position and I took the photo I was looking for and the final result definitely conquered me.
To complete everything I also wanted to find a catchy title: I then thought of a title in Latin that would take up the Italian religious environment and I did a research on historical religious characters beheaded. And here is the choice of Saint Paul, instead, Sanctus Paulus, the beheaded martyr.