With the series Contemplando la notte con tre occhi (Contemplating the night with three eyes), 1997, Laura Viale starts to observe nature through the broadened colour spectrum provided by contemporary landscape, where new colours made of artificial light blend with the "old" colours, made of materials.
The title of this first series refers to Friedrich's painting Two Men Contemplating the Moon and to an idea of landscape perception, which may also be romantic. It also suggests a meditative approach, which characterizes all her research: if the eye is the organ of light and conscience, allowing to become aware of the world by giving it reality; the camera lens here becomes a "third eye" that documents everything that can be sometimes seen, but rarely preserved.
She takes photographs "en plein air", at night or twilight. Coloured lights, found or added, illuminate her subjects. With a long exposure, the colour of light saturates the film, amplifying the perception that one would have of that same colour with the eyes.
Photographing literally means to draw with light: Viale draws on black paper - the night - with a palette of projected colours. There is no post-production, her images could be described as "virtual" as well as "different perceptions of the real".
The Contemplando la notte con tre occhi series was presented at Bloom, Mezzago, Milan, 1998.
