Angelo di Petta

Constructed Relief Photographs

These "photographs" are the result of a life long interest in fanning stacks of cards or any similar flat planar material. As a child of about nine or ten, I would sit at my father's side as he played cards with his friends. I looked after his money. When the cards were dealt, he would stack them neatly without looking at them. He then picked them up and began fanning them apart, slowly revealing his hand. He made perfect fan shapes with equal spacing. This personal image has stayed with me. Whenever I have a stack of cards, I instinctively begin fanning them over and over.

The photographs begin by photographing cracks in pavements. Multiple prints of a selected image are made. These prints are cut, stacked and fanned. Once the desired composition is achieved, the layers are glued together. The number of layers can vary from 20 to 70.

The fanning has been used to give the photographs relief. In the case of the cracks, the fannings also become incisions in the pavement. This is a way of cutting into the pavement; the crack is nature's way.