by Valentina Biondini, art and literature amateur

What is the definition of irony for a calamity visionary as I have been defined? Dying? Or worse, disappearing mysteriously in one of the military campaigns conducted during what was, in fact, one of the bloodiest calamities in human history, the Second World War? But let’s go in order. My name is Franz Sedlacek and, rightly or wrongly, I was one of the main Austrian artists active between the two world wars.
Susan Sontag stated in her essay On Photography (1977): “No one has ever discovered ugliness through photographs. But many, through photographs, have discovered beauty”. In fact, photographic art-fact often invites us not just to reflect, but above all to glimpse a power in the visual image capable of arousing deep emotional reactions within us. As if, suddenly, through that shot, our gaze was able to see something that goes beyond custom, pushing us further. This is what happens in the book “Sulle gambe” by Donatella Ferrini, currently on pre-order on bookabook in a crowdfunding campain with the aim of publication, in which her young protagonist changes the painful approach to the vicissitudes of his life precisely after observing a picture. Let’s talk with the writer.

