MOUNT FOG
Nicola Domaneschi / Erich Grunewald / Marco Verdi
Where are you from? Where do you live?
N: I’m from a sad small town just a few miles from Cremona, Pianura Padana, the most foggy place in Italy. I still live there.
E: I live in Göteborg, city of the thousand-year long rain.
M: I’m from Pavia and I’ve lived for periods in different towns in Lombardy, currently in Como.
How old are you?
N and M: 25.
E: 24.
How do you pay your bills? Are you working as a professional photographer?
N: I’m not a pro photographer. I’m a graduate in graphic design and I pay my bills with odd jobs, it’s hard!
E: At the moment I work with interaction design for Volvo cars, here in Sweden.
M: Definitely not a professional nor a photography student. I’m a near-graduate in sound engineering.
What cameras do you use?
Mainly 35mm film cameras (Nikon FM2, Canon A-1, Zenit ET, Yashica Reflex 35) and medium format (Rolleiflex 3.5F and, very recently acquired, a Mamiya RZ67).
Any photographer or artist inspiring you?
We easily get fascinated by the daily discovering of inspiring work on photo blogs and magazines. Contemporary photographers we love are Richard Mosse and his stunning book titled INFRA; Tayo Onorato & Nico Krebs; Luigi Ghirri, though he’s almost a classic. Sounds and music in all forms are also fundamental sources of inspiration, as are videos and literature. Not to mention daily life itself.
What/who do you enjoy to shoot the most?
The remote and immediate, the abandoned and haunted, the broken and beautiful. Man-altered landscapes and forgotten terrains.
Do you believe in god?
We’re not into religion, although we consider ourselves spiritual people. Two of us believe in a personal and intimate vision of the concept of God (whatever that is); the other is just a staunch atheist.
What do you drink on a night out?
N: Wine, beer and sometimes scotch whiskey.
M: Bitters.
Do you like dancing?
N: No.
E: I like watching professional dancers dance, like ballet. I think dancing might be the first art form.
M: I used to headbang.
What’s your favorite first name?
M: The one pronounced in a language which I don’t speak.
Are you a fashion addicted?
We appreciate those who can shape fashion with taste and intelligence.
What’s your favorite tv series?
N: Probably Lost… this crap was literally fucking my brain for months! Actually I follow Boardwalk Empire, while Twin Peaks is a classic.
Recommend us a book.
N: Cormac McCarthy, “The Road”, truly apocalyptic e very doomish. Georges Bataille, “Madame Edwarda”, dramatic and perverse.
E: Try Gerald Murnane, “The Plains”, wherein the plains act as a metaphor for most everything. Or, if I were to step into my cultural-imperialist shoes for a moment, how about a modern Swedish classic – “Captain Nemo’s Library” by P.O. Enquist, a story of two children separated at birth, then swapped back six years later. Gloomy.
What’s the country of your dreams?
A place where you can feel peaceful, which we hope to find one day.
Have you ever been to Iceland?
None one of us have been there yet, but we are very attracted by Iceland and would like to go there. We suspect its environments would suit our photography.
What song would you choose for a slideshow of your work?
We produce our own soundtracks for this purpose. For the project “Järnspökenas nedgång” (literally “The iron ghosts’ decline”), realized as an audio-visual installation and exhibited in Cremona, we recorded the resonances of heavy and bulky metallic objects displaced in empty rooms, as well as old analog synthesizers and broken, prepared instruments.
Ask yourself a question. Tell me your answer (like Marzullo does)
Q: The noise you hear—what is it?
A: Sunn amps and smashed guitars.
website: mountfog.tumblr.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/mountfog
email: climbthemountfog@gmail.com
