Embraces Series
Adriana Moracci

Embraces Series (by Adriana Moracci)

In her book On Photography, Susan Sontag expresses Having a Shakespearean photograph is equivalent to having a nail from the Holy Cross, somehow the photograph saves, brings back the past to a present, materializes yesterday, can become one ” magic wand “to build memory or be a tool to keep a memory from fading.

In 2005 and as an urgent need to save the imminent loss of a loved one, I took the camera to record a hug, mine with my grandmother. To save in some way that physical contact was essential, I was not only interested in capturing the portrait of my grandmother but the most important thing was to witness our embrace, our physical encounter. That photograph can be changed for me into a sign and a permanent evocation of the bodily encounter, a “place” to which I can return when contemplating the image.

That first photograph of the hug with my grandmother, determined a vast series that includes more than twenty records of other hugs from loved ones, family or friends, and in some of which included me. All records were made in private homes or places familiar to those portrayed, using natural light, a 120mm analog camera with black and white film. Developed and copied in the laboratory manually.