Photographer Francesco Topino is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘BLURRED’. To see Francesco’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Blurred is the result of a self-healing process: an intimate look at what appears real while we are awake but dissolves into fiction at night, in our dreams, losing all known boundaries with reality.

Dreamlike visions transfigure reality and further dissolve into an almost liquid state of existence itself, frequently losing all its clear borders with rationality which often harms us irreparably.

Our perception of reality becomes blurred to the point of being unable to make out people and objects which, although close, appear distant and evanescent. Consequently, living beings cease to have a body of their own, merely turning into shapes of lights and shadows unable to contain their own souls.

By going through this out-of-body experience, one experiences the perceptions and responses generated through sensory stimuli that an individual encounters from their environment. Thus, becoming aware of one’s own tangible presence in the world.

A self-taught photographer, I was born in Rome, Italy in 1974. I got acquainted with my first camera at the age of 16, something I inherited from my dear mother, an avid photographer herself. Over the years, I delved into several different types of photography, from street to architecture to contemplative. 

I am particularly interested in poetic photography focusing both on digital and analog techniques. I like to use photography as a way to better understand myself, my fears, and my hopes. Photography for me is a never-ending journey, an exploration into my deepest inner feelings, a quest to find my own tangible presence in the world. 

My bodies of work focus on identity and the relationships between people and nature. I like to develop subjective narratives resembling personal diaries in which people and animal figures interact with each other, mixed with natural elements and landscapes.

All images and text © Francesco Topino