It’s not only artists and sculptors who are finding Second Life (SL) advantageous in creating and displaying their work worldwide, photographers are also making their mark in the virtual world.Papper Papp is one such photographer, a number of her real life photographs are displayed in her Mayfair gallery and I met her there to talk about her wonderful work. Papper told me that she is from Italy, born in Florence, and first started taking photographs as a child. I asked her if there had been other photographers in the family and she said no, but when she lived in Firenze her mother would take her to the art galleries every Sunday, her mother liked to paint and Papper spent many hours watching her, so there is an artistic flair in the family.
Papper told me that she came into SL to show her real life photographs, but has also been taking photographs ‘in world’ as well. She says that she tries to capture emotions with her photographic art, sharing them with others. She certainly does that, one of her pictures, a black and white study of a park bench with autumn leaves scattered on it, denotes loneliness, it has a remarkable sadness about it. She said that had marked a melancholy time in her life, but she was happy now and her present ‘up beat’ work displays this.
Her photographs also display emotions with relationships, moods, nature and the environment. Her set of pictures capturing reflections of her subjects on wet pavements and on water surfaces are truly amazing, you get the feeling that the storm has passed and the people in the photos are happy to step out in their bright colourful clothes. It’s somehow a different slant to ‘people watching’, you still feel the joy or the sorrow of them, but through the slightly distorted softened reflection, giving you a hint rather than a clear view of the subjects' emotions.
Papper has already had success in real life, she has had two exhibitions in Rome (where she is living at the moment). She had one of her pictures published in a poetry book in Iran as well as publishing some of her work in an Italian Magazine. You can visit her web page at http://www.paolapandolfini.net/ to find out more.
I asked Papper how she discovered SL and I think she should tell you in her own words, she says: "Real Life, Easter 2007. I was in Abruzzo, surrounded by strangers, I was quiet sure about how I teleported myself there, but I didn't have an idea about the reason: one of these strangers pointed to me shouting: "YOU MUST LOG INTO SECOND LIFE!" "What is it?" I replied. Back home, I felt the sensation to have missed something, maybe I hung back!!! Papper Papp was born this way, but it is important to say that she was really born a lot of time ago, because I am Papper Papp :). I logged in doing the same thing I always did in my life: pictures and writing. Sometimes SL bored me, like a "what am I doing here???" Every time I have felt like that, something happened: interesting topics, great conversations, so I didn’t log off. Not yet. I am still discovering things that I knew, but that I forgot, don’t know how".
To me, this is the Papper I met, exciting, full of ideas and looking at the deep meanings of life. She took me over to see another gallery where she shows her work, but with a twist, she opened the gallery with a friend, Neupaul Palen (who built the gallery) and they worked together to create the most unusual visual displays I have ever seen in SL.
Neupaul and Papper give you a different perspective to contemporary photography displays and artwork, and I warn you, if you visit there you may find you are disorientated at first. Foremost you are aware of the sounds in the gallery, sculpted brains falling to the ground with a thud, posters that fall on you, but pass straight through you, semi transparent walls with writings on them that you walk through. The whole structure seems bright, like walking into a fluorescent light tube, and its not until you study it more carefully that you see Papper and Neupaul's images on the walls.
Papper and Neupaul have chairs hovering high above the walkways, the chairs are not straight but hung at strange angles. Once you sit in a chair to view the pictures you can spin round to take different aspects of the displays, according to whatever angle you have the chair at. Papper told me that the whole gallery tells a story as you walk through it, but everyone who enters there can see a different story. I can only suggest you go there to see how you interpret your time there, I for one will have to go back for a visit to see what conclusion I come to, it’s very interesting and makes people use their imaginations. You can find Papper and Neupaul's blog at http://www.susyspecchi.splinder.com/
Papper is a very talented photographer, both her real life photographs and her venture into SL photography are reflective of the love and enthusiasm she has for her art. You can teleport to her galleries (listed below) and see for yourself.
1 comments:
Some clarifications:
Second/Aria/Mente is a project by Neupaul Palen aka Paolo Palmacci.
He created it for his final work on Bologna University (Cinema Television and Multimedia Production).
So all this installation was created only by Neupaul Palen.
Papper Papp was invited by Neupaul to put her pics together his on the "wall" of the structure.
The blog Specchi e Second Life was also created by Neupaul Palen (Papper wrote only some few posts).
That's all.
Neupaul Palen aka Paolo Palmacci
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