Mara Palena is an Italian artist
Episode 399: Mara Palena and I sat down to discuss her excellent new book Oikeiôsis, published by eminent Italian publisher Witty Books!
The book is an archive of Mara’s life in some ways. Still, in other ways, it is really about our obsession with photography, our way of living with the camera as an ever-present device for recording moments, transient scenes, and people who ephemerally float in and out of our lives and the frame of the camera.
I love Oikeiôsis. As I mentioned to Mara in our recording, I feel the book has an energy that I rarely feel, but that is reminiscent of the 90s. Something close to fashion photography is hinted at in the book, but its cumulative effect is broader, and more effective at hinting at the times in which we live. I am reminded of Juergen Teller, cinema, and perhaps even Nan Goldin and Larry Clark. The book echoes the golden days of Scalo, a publisher who brought many significant photobook titles into the world. Please tune into our discussion. We cover Mara’s background, but also a number of equally interesting topics from digital grain to the personal archive.
