Uncle PigeonANANDAMIDE:
The Photography of Giuliano Cocco
FAMILY SAGA
BLUERAILROAD is proud to feature this series of photographs by Giuliano Cocco of Sicily, Italy.
What follows are his words about this project, “Family Saga,” in his native Italian, and in an English version he translated for us.
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A proposito di FAMILY ALBUM:
Sono onorato dell’invito, fattomi dal mio vecchio amico Paul Zollo, a pubblicare alcune delle mie foto, in particolare il progetto “Family Saga,” lavoro al quale tengo particolarmente perché tratto dall’album fotografico della mia famiglia di origine.
Dopo molti anni sono tornato in possesso, per farne copia, dell’album fotografico della mia famiglia di origine. Rivedere quelle immagini con i “nuovi occhi” dati dal tempo trascorso ed il successivo approfondimento visuale, condotto anche, come un’analisi empiricamente fisiognomica, hanno dato vita all’idea di trasformarne l’esperienza percettiva…ovvero ne è nata l’intenzione di farne “una famiglia romanzesca” dei ritratti della memoria, mediati da un approccio ironico e/o surreale e sicuramente influenzati, nei concetti espressi, dalla mia esperienza famigliare. La base del lavoro, come dicevo, sono le foto del mio album di famiglia, che riguardano il secolo scorso; la possibilità di trasformazione, di elaborazione e di montaggio delle immagini, offerta dal digitale, mi ha permesso, quindi, di decostruire/ricostruire volti, espressioni, trasferire i ‘personaggi’ in altri luoghi o in situazioni avventurose/eroiche, una sorta di saga e praticamente una nuova famiglia…
Spero che anche a voi, lettori di Bluerailroad, le mie foto possano piacere come sono piaciute a Paul.
Grazie per l’ospitalità, buona visione…
—Giuliano Cocco
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My friend Max with the Teacher
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I am honoured by the invitation from my old friend Paul Zollo to publish some of my photos, in particular the “Family Saga,” to which I am particularly proud because it is a work project adapted from actual photos of my family.
After many years I came in possession to make a copy of the photo album of my origin family. I reviewed those images with the new eyes I was given since the time I last saw them. The subsequent visual deepening, conducted also as analysis empirically physiognomic, gave birth to the idea of transforming the perceptual experience with the intention of making a family romance of the portraits of memory, mediated by ironic and/or surreal approach, and certainly influenced in the concepts expressed, from my family experience.
The basis of the work, as I said, are photos from my family album, covering the last century. The possibility of processing and editing the images given by digital technology has allowed me then to deconstruct/reconstruct faces, expressions, and to transfer the characters in other places or situations adventurous/heroic, a sort of saga and practically a new family.
I hope that also to you, readers of Bluerailroad, that my photos can pleasure as are they pleased to Paul.
Thanks for the hospitality, good vision,
–Giuliano Cocco
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Anandamide Junior with Uncle Friedrich * Uncle Friedrich ( plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/ ), while he speaks to Anandamide Junior of the idea that the universe does not have an absolute sense…asserting the creativity of the life… 
Constance’s Aunt Triptych 
Diptych of the Flight. With Uncle Pigeon the day of the feared first flight. 
I, Anandamide And The Parish Priest
*Anandamide is a recently discovered messenger molecule that plays a role in pain, depression, appetite, memory, and fertility. Its name comes from ananda, the Sanskrit word for “bliss”. Anandamide’s discovery may lead to the development of an entirely new family of therapeutic drugs. Anandamide chemistry provides a rare glimpse of processes that affect human behavior at the molecular level.
- In Boat with the Young Uncle Pigeon
India Trip * …the great-grandfather, after the Pinocchio’s arrest, for dark reasons, left family and job… leaving with the brother for India…where disappeared mysteriously. 
Grandmother & The Dragon 
My Great-Grandfather with his Brother on Occasion of the Pinocchio’s Arrest (Official Photo) 
- My Mother at the Kindergarter
Sunday Excursion Triptych; Anandamide, I and our father (brother of uncle Pigeon), on the way back from our customary Sunday excursion… The arrival of the thunderstorm will accelerate re-entry, and an unespected wind gust joined to the distraction provoked from the presence of the photographer, they were cause of a landing not particulary soft… 
Nonna Flor * Homage to Jorge Amado…(Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos 1966) Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado (1912-2001), Brazil’s most beloved writer. The roguish and irresponsible Vadinho dos Guimaraes dies during a Carnival parade. His widow, Dona Flor devotes herself to her cooking school, but well-meaning friends urge her to remarry. The lonely widow finds herself attracted to Dr. Teodoro Madureria, a kind, considerate pharmacist, who is everything Vadinho was not. After their marriage, Flor longs for her first husband and her longing is so powerful that it brings his ghost back from the grave, right into her bed. 
…Uncle Friedrich ( plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/ ) hears the last musical compositions of his dear friend Dionysus. 
Uncle Enoch * “Armageddon” for the friends, closes the game…… 
bluerailroad 
