by Irina Savin<\/p>\n
\nI imagine Jean-Marc Caracci as a stalker haunting the streets of unknown cities in search for glimpses of urban stories. A gawky stalker, with his instrument of subjugation in sight, as it defies by size the small rectangular left pocket of his coat \u2026 and he can\u2019t hide it in his sleeves either. A harmless stalker, waiting and hunting for the perfect shot, scouting for the right alignment of the shadows with the lines and curves of the giant glass buildings, for the almost flawless synchronisation of people entering or passing by open doors on the streets, and the symmetry of human silhouettes captured in the middle of an urban architectural breach \u2013 between a statue\u2019s legs or hollow walls.
\nCaracci started his \u201cHomo Urbanus Europeanus\u201d photography project in June 2007, and since then he has been traveling to capital cities across Europe, dedicated to capturing the symbiosis of man and architecture. Dodging the role of the mainstream tourist, the photographer avoids taking pictures of the architectural benchmarks in the places he visits. On the contrary, his buildings are plain and monotonous. The grey tones don\u2019t help either. And the people seem all the same everywhere. You can easily mistake Lisbon for Istanbul (in Caracci\u2019s perception, an European city), and Belgrade for Berlin. But that is the actual idea behind the project \u2013 undressing cities and buildings to bare lines, to the essence of the homo-locus liaison, in order to cast light upon the core realities Europeans share, and hide the differences in the black and white tones and wide sceneries. The philosophy of the unitary Europe has mostly become mundane in the context of urban discourses becoming more and more political. Even if it might still offend some groups of devout believers in the uniqueness of nations, contemporary Arians or so, it certainly fails to set in motion that easily the unduly enthusiasm about eurocentrism. And it certainly doesn\u2019t trigger mine.
\nBut, leaving aside the political philosophy, Caracci\u2019s pictures do trigger a different type of enthusiasm. It is the excitement of discovering time frozen in an image \u2013 some pictures are amazing solely because the artist managed to capture (after hours of waiting, probably) the exact moment when two men in suits were passing under a wide advertising board exactly when the two workers hanging on the wall above were swinging in line with the semi-eliptical smiles on the two faces pictured on the ad. Complicated to describe it in words, as you could plainly see in my bad choice of phrases, but surprisingly simple the image itself. And powerful by contrasts \u2013 the image of the two serious men in suits, walking in tandem, mechanically rushing on the streets, in the same frame with the two workers hanging like two pieces of undigested food between the teeth of two giant female faces. I have the same feeling of subtle, innocent, prosaic ridicule when looking at another of Caracci\u2019s pictures, shot on the shore of a lake in Bratislava. Imagine nothing else but a lake and a strip of grass. A round-figured woman in a bathing suit, sitting in the lake, one meter from the shore, with her back at the camera. And a little duck in the middle of the lake, in perfect line with the woman and the camera. Everything so still and peaceful, almost depicting the perfect synthesis of man and nature, if it weren\u2019t for that glimpse of humour in it.
\nThat is what strikes me most in Caracci\u2019s photography \u2013 the simplicity of lines and sceneries, and their ludic play that leaves place for stories and interpretations. I would hate for their meanings to go in one simple direction \u2013 the unity of Europe. I refuse to believe that. Instead, I prefer reading my own stories framed by the urban settings designed by Caracci. Some of his characters seem to be part of the cities they live in, always rushing on their way to somewhere else, and in the process becoming walking concrete pillars muffled in the grey urban cobweb. But others are just motionless contemplating bits and pieces of the surroundings. With bafflement or resignation. Rapt curiosity or wistfulness. And this is what the viewer has to discover, imagine, invent. Caracci pictured an old man sitting on a strip of land by the edge of a park, with a chasm opening underneath, his back to the camera, looking at the giant buildings stretching in front of him. I pictured the same old man, on a Sunday afternoon, crossing the dirty noisy city to get to the park where he used to draw house sketches and write love letters on the back of the same piece of paper decades ago, looking at the buildings like they were alien monsters in a H. G. Wells scenario, and confronting time. The photographer may master the composition, the angles of the lines coming across and the display of the stage, but the story is in the eye of the beholder. Thus, the bottom line of my entire elucubration would be looping around the openness of Caraccis\u2019s pictures to continuously reframing their stories through the viewer\u2019s eyes. I\u2019m afraid it has nothing to do with the author\u2019s intentions to travel across Europe and capture the \u201cHomo Urbanus Europeanus\u201d essence. And I am grateful for that. <\/p>\n