中文简介：

《SONATA》是Aaron Schuman过去四年在意大利拍摄的大量摄影作品。这些图像不是试图捕捉和传达客观现实，而是有意识地过滤了与这个国家相关的许多想法、魅力和幻想，以及几个世纪以来无数到访过这个国家的游客在想象中所代表的东西。Schuman引用了歌德《意大利之旅》（1786-1788）作为这个项目灵感，追求并研究歌德所描述的“感官印象”，重申了歌德在意大利旅行中提出的许多内省问题：

“通过检验自己的观察力，我发现了生命的新乐趣……我能学会用清澈透亮的双眼观看事物吗？从简单的一瞥之中究竟能获得多少？古旧的心理习惯可以被消除吗？”

这些图像神秘而古怪，传达了一个外国人对细节、怪异和神秘的敏感：古代雕像和博物馆墙壁上的裂缝，被塑造和踩踏了几千年的小径，圣人和神灵的锐利目光和若隐若现的存在，堆积的灰尘、骨头、阳光和幸运硬币。Schuman以古典奏鸣曲的形式为指导——通过论述、发展和重述的三个乐章，邀请我们探索一个既属于心灵又属于世界的意大利：一个浸泡在其文化和历史遗产的欣喜和恐怖、和谐和不和谐中的意大利，但在其感官和心理暗示中又不断创新、令人振奋和产生共鸣。

英文简介：

SONATA is an extensive body of photographic work made by Aaron Schuman in Italy over the past four years. Rather than attempting to capture and convey an objective reality, these images are consciously filtered through the many ideas, fascinations, and fantasies associated with the country and what it has represented in the imaginations of those countless travellers who have visited it over the course of centuries. Drawing inspiration from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Italian Journey (1786–1788), Schuman pursues and studies what Goethe described as 'sense-impressions', reiterating many of the introspective questions that Goethe asked himself during his own travels through Italy:

“In putting my powers of observation to the test, I have found a new interest in life…Can I learn to look at things with clear, fresh eyes? How much can I take in at a single glance? Can the grooves of old mental habits be effaced?”

The resulting images are curious, quizzical, and entrancingly atmospheric, conveying a foreigner's sensitivity to details, quirks, and mysteries: cracks that spider across ancient statues and museum walls, paths that have been shaped and trodden over millennia, the piercing eyes and looming presence of saints and gods all around, accumulations of dust, bones, sunlight, and lucky pennies. Using the classical sonata form – three movements moving through exposition, development, and recapitulation ― as a guide, Schuman invites us to explore an Italy as much of the mind as of the world: one soaked in the euphoria and terror, harmony and dissonance of its cultural and historical legacies, and yet constantly new, invigorating, and resonant in its sensorial and psychological suggestions.