Decoding the Image (Interpretare le Immagini) is a beautifully produced collection of exquisite black and white photos taken on a visit to Italy by award-winning Australian photographer, barrister and former NSW Senior Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi AM KC.
More than the feel and texture of the country’s characteristic landscapes and famous landmarks, the images captured convey the variety, subtlety and universality of human expression – the raw public emotion displayed by its people.
Tracing his own paternal family line back to 20th century Italy, Decoding the Image is as much a homecoming as the latest voyage of Tedeschi’s continuing discovery through the eye of a lens. He has been photographing people and their environments for more than 30 years in both Italy and Australia – in their public and private places.
Tedeschi was appointed an Italian Cavaliere in 2009 and a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2013. This is his second photography book. His first, Shooting around Corners, was a 2012 retrospective of his work.
He is also the author of four true-crime books, including one about Eugenia Falleni, a woman of Italian birth, who lived as a transgender man in Sydney in the early years of the 1900s, and who was charged in 1920 with the murder of his wife.
Tedeschi has won numerous prizes and competitions for his photography and has enjoyed many solo and group exhibitions. He regularly gives lectures about his literary and photographic activities.
Decoding the Image is translated by Dr Maria Cristina Mauceri and published by Beagle Press, Australia’s premier art book publisher. The book is fully, introduced, annotated and captioned in both English and Italian throughout
In the words of Sydney Morning Herald art critic, John McDonald, whose essay introduces the book, Tedeschi “set himself the task of trying to photograph the emotions as they pass fleetingly and ambiguously across the faces of his subjects,” he said.
“This is art that values communication over lofty aesthetic aspirations. It is pitched at street level and is resolutely human in scale,” said McDonald.
Decoding the Image is published by Beagle Press and is available from all fine bookshops and online through Booktopia.
Image: Decoding the Image (supplied)