Patrick Messina uses a view-camera to photograph a universe of almost cinematographic solitude where he bears witness to beings’ intimate experience of space. As he updates the underside of the world, he positions lone silhouettes against the sea or softens the contours of deserted parking lots. In order to reveal the fragility of things, he sometimes softens focus into haloes, muddles the perspective and scale, as if an occult hand was manipulating the figurines and the cities behind a set. His portraits detach themselves, raw and without concession to appearances, between mirror and window, flight and nakedness.
