AeSSENCE Photo Essay by Simone Bossi in Collaboration with Philosopher Alessandro Rota.

Simone Bossi, an architectural photographer based between Milan and Paris, has shared with us a photographic series dubbed AeSSENCE, the result of a collaborative interrogation on “the perception of absence in architectural photography”. The self-initiated body of work goes beyond sensitive representations of architectural form. Instead, a series of moments where absence becomes present and operative results in images that capture something undefinable.

AeSSENCE stands as a distillation of ideas emerging from a rich dialogue between Bossi and philosopher Alessandro Rota. Their ongoing conversation endlessly answers and asks new questions. Together, through Rota’s interrogation of text and Bossi’s images, the pair define what absence and therefore presence is, “landing on a final question, as simple as it is critical: is it really essential to find an answer?”

You’re in the Eden.
You’re happy, although you don’t know what sadness is
You’re naked, although you don’t know what clothes are
You’re alone, although you don’t know what society is.
But, at a certain moment, something happens, suddenly
you feel something inside. You perceive a new sensation,
from your stomach. That something, undefinable, breaks
your peace. That feeling, that absence, force you to seek
a solution, and you start to look around, for the very first time.
Suddenly your gaze fixes on an object, and you start thinking.
I have to get that apple.

Poem by Alessandro Rota.

The images are powerful in their composition, Bossi seeking to discover “what stands behind shapes or inside them”. The distinct lack of human presence evokes an uneasy feeling, with each scenario seeming incomplete. Almost as if all the characters in the scenes vanished, all at once, leaving behind only the memory of their movement and activity. An empty chair, a stack of books waiting to be read, a doorway begging to be opened. In the void of silence created by this disappearance, inanimate objects begin to take on the missing voices. A shiny silk blanket curled around a partially opened doorway begins to whisper to voyeurs, daring them to crawl in behind it.

There is an impact in this partial completeness. The atmospheres existing in each image becomes suspended in time, revealing a fragile intimacy. The images largely unfold as fragments of private spaces, the viewer invited to peer into a room they feel they shouldn’t be invited to see, each is marked with a trace of elusive human presence. The objects left behind, although largely dominated by the scale of their surroundings, become beating beacons of light – often difficult to look away from.

Each image speaks in a slightly different tone, the combination of materials, furniture placement, lighting, and composition creating distinct environments. Some are light-filled and airy while others are cloaked in a hazy shadow. Some are constructed through a pane of glass, the imprint of surrounding reflections seeping into the image, while the lens of others becomes disrupted by an intruding wall.

[Words by Caitlin Miller. Images courtesy of Simone Bossi.]