Saintscapes. Vedute di Lombardia / Views of Lombardy – curated by Claudio Borchia

In the summer of 2019 a call, open to all photographers – whether professionals, amateurs, or so called ‘Sunday photographers’ – was distributed through a great number of churches, parishes and local associations. The call requested to send two different sets of images related to votive shrines all over the region of Lombardy.
One image had to show the view from the saints’ perspective and the second the votive shrine itself. The authors were supposed to add information related to the name of the saint and the place where the image had been taken. A special platform had been set up to gather all images and information.

Almost three thousand documents were collected. The idea came actually from Claudio Beorchia, an artist who had started looking at the landscape through the eyes of the saints by literally putting the camera to their eyes and shooting.

A selection of about 800 votive shrines, directly relating the images of the saints to the view in front of them, is here re-arranged into ten categories, poetically following the inscriptions found on site. Over 200 images of the views open the book: on these, the shape of the shrine gives the exact perspective.

A beautiful participated art project where images represent almost a meditation on the landscape.
At the same time, a new opportunity to appreciate books and photography in a different way.