Giovanni Salvatore: L’odore dell’India (the scent of India)

“L’odore dell’India” (The scent of India) is a socio-photographic reportage inspired by the homonymous publication by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italian poet, writer and director, Considered one of the greatest Italian intellectuals of the twentieth century).

The reportage was made in 2011 and was exhibited at the Creativity Center “Centro Cecilia” for the rewiev “orizzonti diversi” curated by Fiorella Fiore in the now distant 2013.

Images in which the reportage mixes sensations and emotions typical of a lyrical photography and the result is a travel diary by photographer Giovanni Salvatore which illustrates how, after exactly 50 years, Pasolini’s texts are still relevant.

The contrasts and characteristics of Indian society are still, albeit in relation to a different era, present and vivid.

“That smell of poor food and of corpses which in India is like the continuous powerful air current that gives one a kind of fever. And that odour which, little by little, becomes an almost living physical entity, seems to interrupt the normal course of life in the body of the Indians. Its breath, attacking those little bodies covered in their light and filthy linen, seems to corrode them, forcing itself to sprout, to reach a human embodiment” (The Scent of India, Pasolini, pag.51).

India explodes with color, but the souls are in grayscale.

Here is a small selection of 20 images.

About the author Giovanni Salvatore.

Photographer since 1998. Filmmaker since 2011. Various publications with magazines such as Lettera22, NTNN-not in the news net and others. Among other personal exhibitions, in 2005  “Paesaggi umani, paesaggi urbani” in Acerenza (PZ) promoted and organized by the Conservation of Cultural Heritage of Basilicata. In 2006 he won the first prize in the Photography section at the European Exhibition of Public Communication. From 2007 to 2011 he set up various personal exhibitions in the city of Reggio Emilia for the “Fotografia Europea” event: “Trinacria Eterna”, “Habitat”, “Questo posto mi appartiene”, in collaboration with the cultural anthropologist Angela Cammarota, a project also exhibited for the festival “Extraordinario” in 2012. In 2011 “Ritratto della Polizia di Stato” and in 2012 “l’io in divisa” promoted by the Italian State Police. In 2013 he won prize at “Incontrarte” competition. In the same year he exhibits “l’odore dell’India” at the Creativity Center “Centro Cecilia” for the rewiev “Orizzonti Diversi” curated by Fiorella Fiore . Director of “Handle with Care” for the installation of the stylist Marika Guida at the Open Air Museum of Camo (TO), Coauthor with Vania Cauzillo of the art video “Dance Here”, Director of photography of several documentaries including “from the earth to the moon” for Rai5, “Land Of Stories” for the Basilicata Region, and a recent art-video for the traveling multimedia exhibition “Basilicatë”, exposed in New York, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Finally, in 2017, coauthor, with the archaeologist Marilisa Biscione, of the documentary “Ricordi di pietra” (prod. “Anima Loci” – “Regione Basilicata” – Nuovi Fermenti”).