A Winged Photographer

A small armchair in the sky to discover a secret Umbria

Opening the book is like taking off into a flight, on the wide wings of Mimmo Coletti's words, lyrical poetry without verses but with the breath and the rhythm that phantasy knows and relies upon to fly high.
His broad-winged prose takes you silently towards the images of an unforeseen and unexpected Umbria, contemplated and beloved in the aerial photographs by Paolo Ficola.
To take them, he actually flew for an impressing number of hours, passing again and again over single locations waiting for the perfect light and framing. And here indeed, every photo realizes the prodigy of a crystal clear vision, where mistery and magic make a unique work of art.

These shots are the result of a highly refined technique, sublime skill and technology at the most advanced level, but it takes more than that. It takes Paolo's passion and intuition for beauty, his will to let people know so many wonderful visuals of his region, Umbria, and their grace beyond description, the wizardry that Nature and History have built together like nobody else can do. It is also the achievement of a dream, the ideal flight path Paolo in his early years had planned with his beloved brother, who transmitted him his passion for flying.

The entangled flight paths percurred by Paolo Ficola to give us his vision of Umbria

There is no corrective intervention on the images, not even an ugly pylon cancelled, in order to be faithful to the reality, its beauty being too overwhelming to be afraid of a small defect. A documentary intention, thus, but also a concerned call for attention and for love. "We have treasures of absolute beauty - says Paolo - let's enhance them letting people know them. They are our petroleum!"

Visiting his laboratory and listening to him while describing machines, programs and devices built by himself is an exciting experience. Paolo is a great master of photography, an artist telling patches of beauty still to be discovered from an unusual visual angle, that of a conscious aviator in silent stall over poems of stony villages or field-drafted valleys, geometries of old roof-tiles, water serpentines and shining mirrors refreshing your heart.

"... your mates are eagles and lost and regained horizons. Fantasy of flying carpets, confetti, effervescent nature, unusual, rare, unseen before, never contemplated like that, so synthetical as to become tapestry, geometry of soul, a sudden heartbeat, a heavenly shiver."

Paolo Ficola, Umbria from above. Comment by Mimmo Coletti. Quattroemme Editor , Perugia 2011. ISBN 978-88-89398-69-2. Bound, 13 ½" x 9 ½" , 332 pages.