Book of the Week: A Pick by Christian Michael Filardo

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Christian Michael Filardo Christian Michael Filardo selects Shapeshifter by Marco Pietracupa as Book of the Week.

Shapeshifter. By Marco Pietracupa.  Yard Press, 2017.

Christian Michael Filardo picks Shapeshifter by Marco Pietracupa from Yard Press as Book of the Week.

"Violent, objectifying, visceral, and decadent are words I would use to describe the photographs contained in Marco Pietracupa’s monograph Shapeshifter. Flash oppressive and bright, Pietracupa suffocates the frame with white light. Despite the overwhelming emphasis on this type of exposure, Pietracupa’s images feel horrifying, twisted, and dark. A woman curled up in the fetal position wearing transparent heels, Shakespearean mannequin permanently gazing at a replica of a human skull, blades of grass over exposed outside a laboratory window. Strangely, these scenarios feel openly captured, vulnerable, and accessible. He’s crafting a narrative pretentious and welcoming, exclusive and ordinary.

Primarily a fashion photographer, Pietracupa reveals some of his influences in this work. I perceive him as an Italian Torbjorn Rodland mixed with the more lo-fi side of Araki. While a little less crafted than both of the aforementioned photographers, Pietracupa takes his grit and pushes it to its maximum capacity. These images feel raw and vulnerable, while still retaining a sense of spontaneity. It’s easy to say this book could be your wildest dream or your biggest nightmare. To me, Shapeshifter is the type of book that makes the photobook as a medium exciting. Regardless of its simple form, the book enables Pietracupa’s images to have a conversation with one another while simultaneously speaking for themselves democratizing his practice in a hyper-stimulating way. I’m eager to see where Marco takes us in the future."— Christian Michael Filardo

Purchase Book

Shapeshifter. By Marco Pietracupa.  Yard Press, 2017.

Shapeshifter. By Marco Pietracupa.  Yard Press, 2017.

Christian Michael Filardo is a photographer and composer living and working in Santa Fe, NM. Filardo has worked for VICE Magazine, Believer Magazine, the Phoenix New Times, and is the shipping manager at photo-eye Bookstore. He is a recent recipient of an honorarium in new music from Oberlin College’s Modern Music Guild. Filardo’s first book, Say My Last Name Softly, a collaboration with Marie Claire Bryant, was released in April 2016 on Holy Page Records.


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