Alberto M. Melis
Voracious photographer, but of an almost always kind soul
I was born in Cagliari, Sardinia (Italy), in 1957. Like many other photographers of the old guard, I started shooting at a very young age handling all the analogue processes, from the development of negatives to darkroom printing, almost exclusively in black and white. It was a very fruitful period that saw me collaborate with the University of Cagliari in several researches and exhibitions on popular architecture in Sardinia. Later I curated several exhibitions dedicated to the Roma ethnic group (gypsies), material later used for the iconographic part of the book La terza metà del cielo (Gia ed. - 1995). Further on I gave up photography almost completely to devote myself to teaching, journalism and writing for children. I have published more than 40 books for major Italian publishing houses, several of which have been translated into other European and non-European countries, including Germany, Spain, France, Russia, China, Brazil and South Korea.
The return to photography - as Jack London put it, an irresistible call of the forest - coincided with a detachment from all my other work, and it was a return to an absolute, individualistic, anarchic freedom of expression. Indeed, I consider photography, even more than writing, to be the narrative form that best suits my artistic temperament: a literature of light capable of recounting an entire existence in a single image. Although I devote myself to different photographic genres (including reportage, portraiture and landscape), today I am mainly interested in Street Photography, a theater whose plots and stages are without beginning and without end. In the last few years I have authored two different exhibitions, Villaverde 2021 and 2022, dedicated to solitude in large urban centers: two projects, Windows in the rain and Station road, still in progress. Another project I am working on is Portraits in Black, dedicated to the peasants and shepherds who animate the ancient rituals of agro-pastoral carnivals in Sardinia.
2024
ProgresFestival 2023 – Winner Nostalgia B/W
Station road :
Street photo project articulated in images taken over the years near Cagliari's railway station: fragments and movements of passage that testify to the fatigue and substantial loneliness of urban living.
Portraits in black:
In Sardinia, ancient carnival rituals linked to the agro-pastoral world come back to life every year, celebrating the return of Spring and Man's controversial relationship with the animal world and nature. The faces blackened with ash recall the pagan and Dionysian origins of these rites.
Windows on the Rain
This is a street photo project that investigates loneliness and incommunicability in large urban centres, returning fragments of passing on public transportation on rainy days, when thin water textures fog the windows and induce more awareness of separation from others and melancholy.
The Mangiabarche Lighthouse
The Mangiabarche Lighthouse is located on a cliff 500 meters off the west coast of the minor island of Sant'Antioco in Sardinia. During mistral gales, waves rage against the lighthouse, sometimes submerging it entirely.
