Invisible cities

Photography represents a trace of reality, an experience captured. ‘What was there in place of photography, before the invention of the camera? The obvious answer is: engraving, drawing, painting. But the most enlightening answer would be: the memory. Previously the function of photography was carried out by the mind.’ So wrote John Berger in his book About Looking. But of what kind of reality – a reality that always exists, and not simply the memory of it – is photography a trace? And, following this track, what, in our new vision, changes the prey which is by now a reality out of sight? To suggest this double doubt, I tried to think about the location of the image, the one where doubt is established and deposited: in this place there have arisen the reality of doubt and its metaphor, imaginary cities, invisible projections, constructions of the mind, and all thanks to real objects assembled in my office – which no one will see.