Article that appeared in the Vaughan Citizen
Written by reporter Adam Martin-Robbins
Nov. 25, 2011
Espresso coffee is synonymous with Italy and some might say with Vaughan, too.
So, it's fitting that Kleinburg photographer Frank Mazzuca's latest exhibition, Doors of Italy/Porte d'Italia, includes prints that have been hand-tinted with the potent caffeinated beverage.
"They may have been shot this summer, but I want them to look as if they're as old as the doors themselves, (which are) hundreds of years old," said the affable 50-year-old, who was born in Italy, but immigrated to Canada as an infant.
To achieve the right look, Mr. Mazzuca experimented with several batches of espresso brewed at different intensities and was extremely pleased with the result.
"I don't exhibit my images in colour. Therefore, I either shoot them in black and white or sepia tone," he said. "I wanted to redefine the tonality range with sepia tone, but more artistically ... and using a liquid that was part of Italian culture."
The hand-tinted prints are among the roughly 30 images featured in the exhibition, which is on display at Mspace Photogallery, in the basement of his home.
Mr. Mazzuca captured the images in cities and towns across Italy — including Rome, Lucca, Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii, Siena, Bologna, Urbino, San Gimignano and Pisa — during the summers of 2010 and 2011.
"I've always photographed decaying architecture — rust, wood, doors, hinges, stone. But shooting doors was sort of the entry of partially decaying architecture," he said. "Doors are sort of like a book, like a front cover of a book, you don't know what's in there until you go in."
His favourite photograph was snapped in a doorway in the Tuscan city of Lucca.
It shows an older woman embracing her adult son, with whom she owns and operates a restaurant called Trattoria Da Leo.
The woman has short hair, dyed burgundy. She's wearing glasses, a floral-print blouse, black skirt and apron.
Her son, on the other hand, looks like he's heading to a biker convention or, perhaps, a Metallica concert. His long salt-and-pepper hair is pulled back in a ponytail.
He sports a pointy goatee, an earring, large silver rings, black T-shirt, fitted black pants, boots, tattoos and studded leather belt with skull buckle.
And, with his right hand, he's making the universally recognized heavy metal hand gesture, which caused his mother to exclaim, "O dio mio (Oh my God)," when she noticed.
"It's about the clashing of cultures. The mom, who ran the restaurant with the son, she's old school and ... he's got these biker pants and a leather studded belt with a skull bone," Mr. Mazzuca said. "It was my favourite one because it showed a doorway. Finally, in one picture, (the door) is open and now I've exposed two of the characters. ... Would you have imagined that scenario came from this empty door?"
Mr. Mazzuca is a self-taught photographer.
He's been shooting since he was an adolescent and his work has been featured in an array of publications over the years including Toronto Life and Applied Arts Magazine.
Mr. Mazzuca also works as a commercial photographer and designer.
He runs his own firm — Mazzuca Design, Photography & Ideas Inc. — out of his home.
"Yes, I'm a commercial photographer, but it's fine art photography and story-telling photography that I like to focus on," he said.
Mr. Mazzuca is especially proud of his work with PhotoSensitive, a non-profit collective of like-minded photographers who produce a body of work based on an overarching themes, such as AIDS in Africa, child poverty or cancer.
He has been involved with about half a dozen PhotoSensitive projects since 2005-06.
The most recent is called The Fuel of Life.
For this project, Mr. Mazzuca, a self-professed foodie, decided to explore how energy is used to process food.
He turned his lens on the Arva Flour Mills.
Located just north of London, ON., it bills itself as "Canada's oldest, continuously operating, water-powered flour mill, and perhaps the oldest in North America."
Mr. Mazzuca has seven photographs in The Fuel of Life exhibition, which takes place Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the Allen Lambert Galleria inside Brookfield Place, 181 Bay St., Toronto.
If you're interested in visiting the gallery to view the Doors of Italy exhibition, e-mail frank@mazzuca-dpi.com To check out his work online, go to mazzuca-dpi.com
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Uncle Frank's Calabrese Cantina with Frank Mazzucaby YouMazzTube12071,252 views
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