Maurizio Anzeri

Maurizio Anzeri makes his portraits
by sewing directly into found vintage photographs.

They remind me of the old spirographs we had as kids,
that drew elaborate geometircal circular designs
with a ball point pen - remember those?

Maurizio's technique began as a classic, "what if?"
Out of curiosity he began stitching onto a found vintage photo.
His work centres around stitching and threads in general
and it was a natural progression
to use his collection of vintage photos.

Someone, somewhere had these photos
and they were important - then they end up
in a box at a flea market.
"Photographs from the 40s and 50s
have a totally different quality from photos
we’re used to today. We don’t recognise them
as photographs now,
they really look like watercolours or drawings.

He begins to stitch,
and build up a three dimensional texture,
and Maurizio calls them Photo sculptures.
"I put tracing paper over the photo and draw on the face until it develops.




Sometimes the image comes straight away,
suggested by a detail on a dress or in the background,
but with the majority of them
I spend a lot of time drawing. "

Once the drawing is done,
he pierces the photo with a set of needle-like tools
and takes the paper away.

He seems to be meticulous
about the spacing and that is what gives it the eerie look.

Part of the face peeks out,

like a mask and he only has one rule -

to leave one or both eyes open.

He gets his ideas from many different sources:

theatre, a person on the train, a tribe in Papua New Guinea,

or Versace. It’s never one specific thing.

This is my favourite quote from him:

"It’s all been done before but it’s never been done by you: if
you don’t look into the past there is no chance to go into the future."

His website seems to be under construction,

but he is represented by some cool galleries.

Read his interview here

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