BIOPHILIA BY RAPHAEL MAZZUCCO

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Definition: An innate love of life and affinity with the living world.

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Raphael Mazzucco is irrefutably a lover of life. His passion

for synchronicity between his subjects and settings,

coupled with an epicurean aesthetic, has resulted in

arguably some of the most relevant photography today,

taking the world of fine art by storm. Mazzucco’s work

heralds a new age of art. Biophilia acknowledges his zeal,

and references his instinctive kinship with all living matter.

From fellow man, to his relationship with habitats and the

natural world, his affinity knows no bounds. Nowhere is

this more clearly demonstrated than Biophilia.

This collection is based upon, relies on and draws from

connections. The connection between life, our lives, and

the life forces around us. The connections made when we

step barefoot on earth, submerge our face in water or rest

the length of our bodies against a towering tree; these

connections transcend taxonomy and unite us through

acknowledging our commonality of energy and vitality.

As the alchemists, sorcerers and astrologers of bygone

years knew, to be truly powerful one had to harness the

power of the natural world; thus Mazzucco has formed

an alliance with nature in this body of work to coax full

elemental beauty through his lens. No detail, no element

or biome is deemed irrelevant or unworthy of notice. Their

very existence dictates that they contribute in some way to

the ecosystems and partnerships celebrated in Biophilia.

Mazzucco’s mastery of staging allows the viewer to live

and breathe the moments captured by his photography.

Hinting at a canopy of trees, laden with air so heavy and

so humid, allows his female subjects to exude not only

their God-given beauty, but a sensual and languorous heat

that, without the climatic context, would feel staged and

inauthentic. As an artist, Mazzucco addresses his audience

and asserts that the gentle flurry of a butterfly’s wings, and

the seductive flutter of a woman’s eyelashes, hold equal

gravitas in his compositions.

To be in the presence of this collection of work is to walk

the equator, taking in every vantage, experiencing every

sensation, greeting every living being and absorbing

every detail. His female subjects are your signposts,

directing you between savannahs, prairies, deltas,

grasslands and rainforests, demanding your attention and

commanding that your focus falls not only on them, but

on the waterfalls, woodlands and water lilies that share

their spotlight. An observer will see Mazzucco working

within the framework of finessed photography, with the

applied expression of painting, to influence the sensation

of movement throughout this collection. One has the

distinct impression that he is leading us to recognise that

the breeze causing his subjects’ hair to billow so pleasingly

in some pieces, also gifts us the endemic ripples in sand

dunes, the gentle swell of waves on shorelines; elements so

unassumingly mesmerising one might overlook them in the

pursuit of “beauty”.

Mazzucco does not ask us to choose between the appeal of

nature versus socially imposed standards of attractiveness,

rather he would like us to recognise that both have a part

to play, and neither reach their true potential without the

other. Drawing on the theory of holism, which presents the

idea that natural systems should be viewed as as a whole

rather than individual elements, this body of work is an

unadulterated celebration of splendour.