Awarded
Leo Fabrizio
Photo research 'Dream World'
Photography
Awarded
Photo research 'Dream World'
Photography
Built dreams in 'Gated Communities'
In his photo research 'Dream World' the photographer Leo Fabrizio pursues built ambitions. What do houses tell about their occupants? A ghostly empty golf course at night, floodlit, is one of the places where a rising middle class amuses itself. A place that embodies social advancement, status and power. A big advertisement hoarding in the landscape gives the photo series its title: 'Dream World'. In what country are we really? On some pictures one recognizes Thai typefaces and only due to them one is able to locate the otherwise faceless sceneries. Overpasses floodlit at night are evidence of modernity. The camera is positioned precisely, the photographer's gaze is unforgiving. People are completely absent. Where are the inhabitants? They are probably at work. Or staying inside their highly typologically photographed air-conditioned houses. Leo Fabrizio takes pictures of these houses with an absolutely artistic ambition and stylises them into a scenery, reminiscent of the typological pictures of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The properties belong to 'Villages', settlements for the Thai middle class outside the Moloch Bangkok with such flattering names as 'The Elegance' or 'Neo-City'. In the seemingly endless series of pictures it becomes apparent how standardised these dream estates are: big loggias, towers and oriels are building types considered desirable by the middle class. They look American, internationally faceless and can stylistically hardly be placed within the Thai tradition. References to local architecture are completely absent. In fact they are the kind of anti-places one passes by very quickly without ever remembering. Yet, the fact that at one still looks at them and wonders who might live in these houses is due to the work of photographer Leo Fabrizio.
Peter Stohler
Leo Fabrizio
Born in
1976
Education
designer HES, communication visuelle, spécialisation photographie
www.leofabrizio.com