The Gift

"In January 2000 I began to work on a long term photographic research project entitled The Gift ("gift" in the sense of grace), a humanistic investigation into the different forms of spirituality.

"My photographic research across innumerable expressions of Faith has sought out visual evidence, by which to transcribe the universality of the act of belief as a metaphysical impetus deeply inherent to human nature. I came to understand that the aim could not be an inventory of the world's religions but rather had to focus on the symbolic codes of the gesture stripped bare of its dogmas.

"I wondered what possessed such multitudes swarming the face of the earth, outlying spaces and endless days; what those who raise their hands to the sky and those who clasp the floor with their palms had in common; what drove those staggering figures to strive for bodily mortification of all sorts, why some would cover all but their eyes while others would simply stand naked; and what inspired those dances and chants, those countless silent hours through the centuries... Inexplicable, though somehow intangibly visible, so many different ways of individual quest for unison of Self and the universe..."

Giorgia Fiorio

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