Davide Monteleone

“…my goal is to create images that are the interpretation of an idea..”

Davide Monteleone (b. 1974, Italy) is an artist and storyteller using photography and video as his main forms of expression. Since 2003, he has lived between Italy and Russia pursuing long-term independent projects, mainly focusing on the post-Soviet area. He published his first book Dusha, Russian Soul in 2007, followed by La Linea Inesistente, in 2009, Red Thistlein 2012 and Spasibo in 2013. He is engaged with educational activities, regularly lecturing at universities and teaching workshops internationally. Davide is a member of the VII Photo agency.

The photographs in Arctic Coordinates were commissioned for the New Yorker story Polar Express in 2012.

Publications

Spasibo, Kehrer Verlag 2013
Red Thistle, Actes sud, Dewi Lewis, Peliti, Kehrer Verlag 2012
Holler, Enel Contemporanea – H+ 2012
La Linea Inesistente, Contrasto 2009
Dusha – Russian Soul,  Edizioni Postcart 2007 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Arctic Coordinates, ILEX Gallery at 10b Photography, Rome, Italy 2015
Dusha +Icons, L’ Oiseau Gallery, Paris, France 2015
Borderline Empire, Kehrer Berlin, Berlin 2014
Spasibo, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, Frankfurt Photo Forum, Frankfurt, Germany, Rencontres de Arles, Arles, France, Museo Messina, Milan, Italy, Chapelle de L’ ecole de beaux Artes – Paris, France 2013-2014
Red Thistle, Officine Fotografiche – Rome, Italy, Micamera, Milan, Italy, Rencontres de Arles -  Arles, France, VII Gallery -  New York, US, Petite Noire Gallery -  Paris, France, Freelens gallery -  Hamburg, Germany, Castello Estense, Ferrara, IT “Festival giornalismo di Internazionale”, Museo Trento e Rovereto Rovereto, Italy 2010-2012
Dusha, Casa studio Morandi – Modena, Italy, Palazzo Esposizioni  – Rome, Italy, Micamera, Milan, Italy, Rencontres de Arles, Arles, France, B gallery, Rome, Italy, Lucca Foto Festival, Lucca, Italy 2007-2013

Selected Collective Exhibitions

Carmignac Photojournalism Award, a retrospective, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK 2015
60 anni de L’ Espresso, Rome, Italy 2015
Spasibo, Kaunas Photo Festival , Lithuania, Tblisi photo festival, Georgia 2014
Harragas, Nobel Prize Center, Oslo, Norway, European Photography Award, House of Photography, Hamburg, Germany 2013
Red Thistle, Rencontres de Arles, France 2012
Ombre di Guerra, MEP, Paris, France 2011
Red Thistle, Lumix Festival , Hannover, Germany 2010

Awards

Spasibo, Shortlisted Best Book of the Year, Paris Photo, book awards 2014
Spasibo, PDN Best Book Award 2014
Spasibo, Aperture Portfolio Prize, honorable mention 2014
Spasibo, The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, best book award 2014
Spasibo, Foundation Carmignac Photojournalism Award 2014
Multimedia Nordic Odyssey, POY Multimedia 2^nd prize 2013
Reversed see series, Awaking award, Tehran art project, Iran 2012
Red Thistle, European Publisher Award 2011
Milan Fashion Week –World Press Photo, 2nd Prize Art single 2011
Daghestan, 2^nd prize Contemporary Issue, Sony World Photography Awards 2010
Abkhazia, 1° Prize General news stories, World Press Photo 2009
Israeli bombing in Lebanon – 1° Prize Spot news stories, World Press Photo 2007

“Odyssey is a travel with a lot of trouble. This is also how life is”
Edison, able seaman on board the “Nordic Odyssey”

“The traveller is the journey.
What we see is not what we see but who we are”
Fernando Pessoa, “The Book of Disquiet”

What propels an individual to venture from the safe and familiar to the unexplored and unknowable? For Fernando Pessoa, the author of “The Book of Disquiet”, the experience of a journey enhanced the sense of freedom. Even though the writer, who dedicated most of his oeuvre to the idea of travelling, never left his beloved Lisbon –not needing to go far in order to feel free.

Arctic Coordinates was made during a thirty-five day journey on the “Nordic Odyssey” cargo ship*, which transported, in the summer of 2012, 70,000 tons of iron ore from the Russian port of Murmansk to China across the Arctic. It was the first time ever that a cargo boat sailed the Northern Sea – an alternative transportation route made available with the onset of global warming. The ship, led by an icebreaker, waded through the ice of the Arctic waters, crossed the foggy Bering Strait and continued along the far-eastern parts of Russia, passing by Japan before arriving to a newly built port on the shores of China.

The voyage soon turned routine, flattening the sense of time and space, negating any excitement of being somewhere unique. The boredom, the slow passing of time, the impossibility to escape – is daily life for the sailors who undertake this journey to earn their livelihood. The romanticized image of the Arctic – of exotic travel, of brave seamen – fades to the harsh reality faced by the men who spend months away from their families, overwhelmed by the utter feeling of time laid waste. Like Odysseus, their only wish is to return home.

So the lust for adventure becomes a trap; the thirstiness for new impressions gives way to deep thinking. And this switch of mood becomes visible throughout the Arctic Coordinates series – like Mark Rothko’s color field paintings, Davide Monteleone’s images are expressive without being descriptive, thought provoking without becoming literary. And the leaden emptiness of space, eventually losing its deepness and sharpness, creates a meditative mood and a perfect setting to embark on a journey towards oneself.

* The work was commissioned for the New Yorker story Polar Express in 2012.

Text by Anna Arutiunova