Hans Silvester's lifelong dedication to investigating
our world, capturing and promoting the most intimate, and perhaps enigmatic, of
organic phenomena, has led the German-born artist down a number of career
paths, including forays into journalism, philanthropy and environmental
activism. Born in Lorrach, Germany in 1938, Silvester graduated from the School
of Fribourg in 1955 before beginning his life as a traveler and photographer.
His wide-ranging oeuvre includes studies of various regions around the world,
including chronicles of France, Central America, Japan, Portugal, Egypt,
Tunisia, Hungary, Peru, Italy and Spain throughout the 1960's and 1970's. In
the next decade, Silvester turned his photographic eye toward Europe's nature
preserves, the expansive Calavon river valley, and the ravages of deforestation
in the Amazon. Silvester then moved on to the Great Indian Desert, documenting
the lives of women in Rajasthan, before publishing a number of book series
devoted to locations such as the colorful landscapes of Provence and the Greek
Isles. Silvester's recent work features the Surma and Mursi people of the Omo
Valley in southern Ethiopia, presenting the beauty of the tribes' ancient
tradition of temporary body decoration. His photographs reveal the use of
bright mineral paints to embellish the skin and the use of flora and fauna to
fashion spectacular headpieces and body accessories. His commitment to the
documentation and preservation of relatively unfamiliar earthly marvels is
visible in these photographs. The artist describes his immersion into the lives
and tradition of these Ethiopian tribes as an effort to "save...as much as
possible of this truly living art, which is mobile, changing, subject to
infinite variation, and whose constituent elements...form a link between man
and nature." Through the memorialization of the vivid, yet intricate
designs that adorn the faces and bodies of his subjects, Silvester strives to
underscore the "the beauty and purity of nature...taken out of context,
[so] you're reminded again how beautiful a seed pod, a mushroom or a flower
is." It is this appreciation of beauty and penchant for cultural
expression that is both exceptional in regard to the magnificent forms produced
by these tribal cultures, but also exceptionally familiar, reminding the viewer
of the fundamental yearning for the beautiful that unites us all. Silvester's
work has been exhibited at Marlborough Gallery, New York (2010, 2009);
Marlborough Gallery, Monaco (2010, 2009); and Polka Galerie, Paris, France
(2009). His work is the subject of almost 50 books, including a photo essay on
Camargue in 1960, a well-regarded documentation of Europe's nature preserves in
1982 and a series of books on Provence published throughout the 1990s. His most
recent book is Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from Africa (New York: Thames
and Hudson, 2008).
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Nato a Lörrach in Germania nel 1938, Hans Silvester è un fotografo di origine tedesca,
giornalista, filantropo e attivismo ecologico. Dopo aver viaggiato in molti
territori, qualche anno fa è approdato dalle popolazioni Surma e Mursi della
Valle dell’Omo in Etiopia meridionale.
Qui resiste ancora antica tradizione della decorazione
temporanea del corpo con minerali brillanti a cui vengono associate
acconciature particolari e accessori per il corpo. Silvester descrive il suo
lavoro in Etiopia come il tentativo di “salvare qualcosa … per quanto possibile, di
questa arte di vivere veramente, che è mobile, mutevole, soggetta a variazioni
infinite, i cui elementi costitutivi .. . formano un legame tra l’uomo e la
natura.”
La bellezza e la
vividezza dei colori, il potere della luce naturale, il fascino di un body
painting che è anche comunicazione interpersonale.
I suoi scatti sono, da
giovedì 10 fino ad aprile, in mostra a Tampa Bay al Florida Museum of
Photographic Arts (Natural Fashion: Art and the Body Photographs by Hans Silvester).
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All
images © Hans Silvester
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