Out of the corner of my eye. Writings on photography

The favoured topic of Marina Ballo’s photography is what is “always seen,” the objects remaining at the threshold of perception, the out of focus from which the “background noise of our minds” transpires. In order for this dimension to surface, you need to look at the world “out of the corner of your eye,” incorporating distraction, quiescence and the variety of day-to-day experience into your gaze. Matching images and words has been the author’s imperative necessity over the whole of her artistic path. Long-distance exchanges with her favourite authors and photographers (such as Gabriele Basilico and Lewis Baltz), writing thoughts, compiling work journals, clarifying theoretical roots and discovering inspirational affinities (for example with Robert Adams, Raoul Hausmann, Timothy O’Sullivan, Jeff Wall) reveal themselves to be integral parts of her creative practice. Arranged both in a chronological order and according to themes, the texts shed light on the connection between her work with images and the psychotherapeutic counselling, both deemed as processes based on a “particular sort of relationship with the world or with the landscape, one based on listening and on being surprised by things that do not seem to have any particular meaning.” This book is a meditation on photography as an instrument of knowledge and as means of experience that activates the subconscious. This volume, edited by Stefano Chiodi, is complemented by a conversation of the author with Jean-François Chevrier.