Illusory Voyages

Illusory Voyages

Swiss-Italian Christian Tagliavini (b. 1971) assumes total creative control over his narrative photographic series, producing everything from the meticulously researched, lavish costumes and props to the sets of his shoots, in an approach that blends craftsmanship and fine art. Constituting an imaginative reinterpretation of historical eras and literary masterpieces, Tagliavini explores the idiosyncratic themes and characters of the stories he inhabits. The pictured sequence, Voyages Extraordinaires, reimagines Jules Verne’s novels: Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870). Every photograph features a portrait of a ctitious character inspired by Verne, each portrayed as a traveller – an explorer of space, or a nautical passenger. All have their counterpart waiting for them on Earth: possibly a young girl watching the skies through a telescope. The series originally showed at Camera Work, Berlin. www.christiantagliavini.com.