The absurd in Luca Marino’s photography

3 years ago

With a photo-journalistic approach, photographer Luca Marino searches for the absurd in situations. Born in London to an Italian father and a Colombian mother, Marino is attracted to those details that often go unnoticed, “I look where no one else looks,” he says. Among the streets of the great metropolis of London, Luca Marino makes two projects, “Oxford Street Paradox” and “Transport for London.“

In the first project – “Oxford Street Paradox” – the photographer’s much sought-after absurdity is evident, which, at times, deceives the viewer. The photographs capture passersby on the city’s busiest shopping street – Oxford Street – appearing totally deformed. This effect is not achieved in post production, Marino in fact shoots the reflective surface of a cloister that creates funny altered images. With irony and levity, the photographer uses this natural “alteration” to point out how crazy our shopping habits have become, bordering on compulsive.

Also in the second project – “Transport for London” – Luca Marino shows what is often not looked at but rather, ignored. In this case, the protagonists are the employees of London’s transport system, from buses to the underground. People we do not pay attention to but who are responsible for the city’s road system. They allow us to move from one side of the city to the other, but they remain in the shadows. Luca Marino, in collaboration with the company, gets in touch with the hidden side of the famous Underground, photographing employees in their offices and rest rooms. He captures moments of cleanliness, including the sanctification of the carriages during the period of health emergency dictated by covid-19.