The Other World of Bruno Militelli | Blog Miss Numérique
By Aurélie Vautrin, November 4, 2019
A drop of water resting on a bird’s feather, the colored layers of a piece of quartz, the aerial loops of a plant, the geometric structure of a plumage, a flower, a stone, a leaf or a soap bubble…Bruno Militelli zooms in on our world to unveil another.
In macro photography, the possibilities are endless… The whole universe becomes a playground, and nature a wonderful showcase of creativity. Especially because this way of showing the world has the power to completely transform our point of view on the things around us… So, if we offered you some time ago to discover how to do macro photography, today is the opportunity to paint a portrait of a young brazilian artist who has made this technique his great specialty: Bruno Militelli.
NATURE AND ABSTRACTION
It seems hard to believe when you discover his different photo series, and yet Bruno Militeli is a completely self-taught photographer — moreover, it’s only been a few years since he really started to photograph professionally. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he soon became passionate about the infinitely small, the tiny, the invisible to the naked eye … While considering Mother Nature as a work of art in itself, teeming with millions of billions of details that we do not see. Brilliant fragments of abstract beauty, a good photo lens, a good mastery of light and a little (a lot) of training can make it stand out.
“Since I began to photograph, my passion for this type of art has grown naturally from the desire to capture unique perspectives.” he explained on his website. “Through my work, I look for an abstract but still natural result, developing an individual perspective and allowing my viewer to also enjoy the object photographed by this new point of view.”
ONE DAY ON EARTH
His style, which he describes as both “ vivid and naturalistic”, offers us an amazing and incredibly fascinating vision of very simple natural elements. Elements that are sometimes hard to recognize at first glance! But in the end, what does it matter, because this is not the point: what matters is the singular and intrinsic beauty of the object. A show of colors, contrasts, light play, geometric shapes, almost architectural, which emphasizes “the beauty of the planet in which we live”.
Note also that, if he uses Lightroom and Photoshop in post-production, it is only for some basic retouching and to clean his images of any possible dust spots. “The rest is nature that offers it to me…” — and his neat control of his Fujifilm X-T2, as well as his macro lenses.
“Over time I came to see my digital camera as a modern instrument capable of transporting me to a new, unexplored world where I can discover places and sights still unknown.” Hence, undoubtedly, the feeling is that time has stood still, or that the subject has just arrived from another planet before landing gently in front of his lens…
Besides, by looking at Bruno Militelli’s different series of photos, we find a feeling of mildness inherent to each image, thus defining a connection between art, science, biology and poetry. “With each image I hope to portray the singular beauty of the object, showing its unique elements and emphasizing how intriguing is the planet we live in.” So, for his Chemicals series, he breeds, for example, experiments mixing water, alcohol, dyes, soap and oil… The results are spectacular symmetries, amazing patterns, and reflections of light.
“My Cryptocrystals series is dedicated to exploring the effect of light passing through crystals. My goal is to celebrate the vibrant colors and incredible patterns of these crystals and reveal these hidden structures of nature. The images are made of agate, a variety of translucent quartz, which is characterized by its varied colors and arranged in parallel, straight and concentric bands. It’s fascinating to see how we identify on these abstract patterns and organic formations as much larger natural elements of our planet: rivers, seas, mountains, waves and beaches, they seem trapped in these tiny crystal.”
CLOSE-UP
In Aquabeads, the artist chose to play on this “subtle interaction” between bird feathers and drops of water. “It’s the inherent ability of birds to repel water that keeps them dry, their feathers are naturally impermeable. It’s this property that has generated perfect water spheres that virtually float beneath the surface of the feather. Observed from a macro perspective, it is possible to admire the beauty of these impeccably round and translucent water pearls, revealed in these photos in a singular way, in order to show the influence of light when crossing these drops.”
“Due to the optical phenomenon of refraction created by water, these water droplets have the ability to deflect the light that crosses them. So, they work exactly like a magnifying glass. The arrangement of impeccably parallel and symmetrical stripes that, together with the unique patterns and colors of these small filaments, has revealed an organic and abstract pattern… The spectator is invited to get lost in the personal interpretation of this world that could easily go unnoticed. Depending on the angle of incidence of the light in the drop and the arrangement of the feather stripes, the result is transformed into each image, generating quite distinct textures and contours, always with sharp contrasts and well-defined lines.”
In any case, this is a very special way of discovering the world — and a nice way to get into the picture … As long as you’re patient!
Originally published at https://www.missnumerique.com on November 4, 2019.
