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Before You, Santa Claus, Life was like a Moonless Night (review copy)

by Andrea Alessio

Photographs: Andrea Alession

Text: Jessica Backhaus

Publisher: Nazraeli Press

72 pages

Pictures: 31 tritone plates.

Year: 2013

ISBN: 978-1-59005-398-0

Comments: Hardcover, 25,4 x 26,6 cm, first edition of 500 copies.

“A night journey through Northeast Italy, immersed in the silence and in the darkness of the night, if it weren’t for those Christmas lights. A small light and everything is transformed, we see the road, we understand where to look, where to go.” – Flavio Franzoni. “Before You, Santa Claus, Life was like a Moonless Night” is published to coincide with Andrea Alessio’s solo exhibition at Micamera, Milan, in celebration of their 10th Anniversary. The book’s 31 images, masterfully sequenced, were made in and around Treviso, where the artist lives. Situated in northeast Italy, not far from Venice, Treviso was once among the wealthiest areas of the country, but is currently facing an economic crisis. Following the Second World War, the landscape was subjected to violent commercial exploitation. Alessio photographed this landscape in near darkness - the only illumination in these pictures is that made by Christmas lights. Melancholy, sad, and heart-wrenchingly beautiful, the book reads as pure poetry from beginning to end. Andrea Alessio was born in Venice in 1966, and currently lives and works between Treviso and Venice. His work has been widely exhibited in Italy, and more recently in the United States.

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