Moisés
Mariela Sancari
Selfpublished
2022
Spain
Barcelona
Mariela Sancari
Mariela Sancari
Nova Era Publications
Nova Era Publications
Olin High White de 170 gr
978-84-09-42616-4
64
Olin High White de 170 gr
Moisés is a typology of portraits of men in their 70s, the age of my father if he were alive.
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"I am convinced that the reason why Moisés, the book, works so well and powerfully is because it is a very smartly designed book, in which the form and construction vastly elevate the photographs, creating an experience for the viewer that will make her or him feel the desire that was driving its creation (...) Moisés demonstrates the power of this particular way to use photographs: with a simple, yet very strongly executed concept and construction, the book takes the viewer out of the world of literalness that so much photography never manages to leave. An impressive achievement."
Jörg Colberg, writer and editor.
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"Moisés is an unusual book. Firstly it attempts to make visual something that is completely unrepresentable - a whole jumble of repressed emotions and her dead father. That is a pretty audacious starting point for any photography project (...) There are very few books which I find as compelling. This is partly due to the structure of the book and partly because of the simplicity of the pictures that have a powerful jolt to deal with very real human emotions without ever being sentimental or overplayed. It just surprises me every time I look at it (...) It’s extraordinary. It’s also strange, sad, mysterious and at times sinister. No other book this year has even remotely come close to the power of Moisés for me."
Susan Bright, curator.
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"Mariela Sancari’s Moisés also negotiated a taboo subject in a powerful and deftly handled manner. The subtext is the suicide of her father, Moisés Sancari, and the hole it left in her and her twin sister’s life. Mariela sought out men who resembled her father as he might have looked had he lived into his 70s. She photographed them dressed in his clothes, with her own image often appearing like a shadow in the image. Both obsessional and formally accomplished, Moisés is a study of grieving that lodges in the head."
Sean O’ Hagan, writer for The Guardian.
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"The project Moisés by Mariela Sancari was sparked by her father’s death; specifically that she was not allowed to see his body. To find closure, Mariela placed a classified ad featuring an old portrait of her father. She asked men of her dad’s age to study the image and contact her should they see a resemblance. The photographs Sancari collected of these men resulted in a touching and fantastically edited book."
Erik Kessels, artist, designer and curator.
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"As family histories go, Mariela Sancari’s poignant photo book is of the highest order. (…) As a design device, it perfectly heightens the searching quality of the photographs. Loss and longing are embedded in every picture but with a particular kind of brightness and clarity. In a sense this is a one-image book, yet it possesses tremendous power and profundity. Sancari has found an utterly fascinating way to bring alive the memory of her father in the minds of her viewers."
Tim Clark, editor, writer and curator.
