It was 2016, Milan. During the Salone del Mobile, I was organizing the catering for a design company in Vienna.

At the time, I had a retail and wholesale business selling Tea and Herbal Teas, and I often had clients from the fashion and design fields. Milan is a hotbed of events from this point of view.

I had just bought my first digital camera and I couldn’t wait to try it. I should point out that for about seven years I worked as a photographer’s assistant, two as a professional with a personal studio in the fields of fashion, music but above all design and so, during my free time I wandered around the space where the exhibition of objects had been set up and I started photographing them.

This image is a detail of a three-panel partition that immediately intrigued me. The pleated-style fabric lent itself well to the play of shadows of the soft light, and its shape reminded me of something Liberty. The rest is what you can see and interpret in your own way. The Studio that designed it, although Austrian, bore and still bears the name “Dante”. A poet whom I think you all know well.

The details of this partition brought back to my memory a little of what I studied at school, namely the “Divine Comedy”. I interpreted this image as the door to hell and the journey of Charon who transported the souls of the damned across the river that divides the world of the dead from that of the living. I know that the comparison may seem a bit macabre, but this is what my imagination perceived. As for the rest, I leave room for everyone’s imagination because everyone can see in this image what they like best.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

I don’t know, apart from the framing and the choice of using black and white, in color, the result would not have been the same, perhaps because it leaves room for imagination. If I hadn’t titled it “Séparée,” I don’t know how many would have thought of this object from another time.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or differently?

I would do it exactly the same way again, maybe straighten the horizon a little, even though in hindsight it gives me a sense of movement.

Roberto Merluzzi shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Roberto Merluzzi, Italy

Equipment and settings

Nikon D5200 + AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f/3.5/5.6G ED VR