Biography
Dominick Martorelli earned his BA in Sociology and a Minor in History at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, his AS in Photographic Technologies at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies, in Daytona Beach, and his MFA in Photography at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.
At the age of 50 in 1992 after a successful business career Dominick Martorelli returned to school and fulfilled his life's dream: to study the art and science of photography. Dominick taught several courses at the University of South Florida and the Southeast Museum of Photography, and then began teaching photography at UNF in 1998.
Dominick's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and has garnered numerous awards, not only in photography exhibits, but in general art exhibitis as well.
Artist's statement
The works you see here are from many different series that I have created over the past 12 years. I use several methods in my work; some are spontaneous visions congnitively sequenced and through the use of multiple projectors, or studio illusions, arranged, forming a visual montage which is then photographed as a final image, and sometimes my work is a single studio image arranged for the simplicity of form and motion, a concept, or simple beauty.
All my work considers the substance and the meaning of the flesh, its sensualness, its spiritualness, and its origin. At times, it is an attempt to integrate visual art and my own lived experiences, at times it mirrors the sacred and profane. Often, I have illuminated images within cluttered and layered spaces that evoke a distilled, yet concentrated and mingled compression and expansion of space, reflecting confusion and harmony. Some images refer to the intangible, unconscious state of dreams, nightmares and fantasies, and I have attempted to evoke an ominous cinematic quality. My subjects are often rendered in stark contrast, suspended in their nakedness, amidst an ambiguous pictorial space. At times, the work is voyeuristic. The subjects gaze seductively at the viewer, while, in others, the subject refrains from confronting the viewer remaining content in her quite nakedness.
At times, I explore visually the contemporary psycho-sexual-religious landscape and seek to enunciate the human condition as inseparable from this mélange. The titles of some of the work allude to my contention that one cannot be separated from their humanness as "naked apes" and contemporaneously, the religious bonds, which, often attempt to alienate human kind from "The self". These images become my imprints, distinct, artistically different, yet the elements of the imprints are common. The sexual illusions and juxtaposition of the physical forms represented in the work cause the viewer to react voyeuristically. Since, on the surface the work is about the flesh, it taps that universal voyeuristic nerve. However, it has a different appeal for each viewer. Each viewer is allowed to make the necessary connections, to piece the mélange together.
And yet, I sometimes visually walk through softer corridors. As Photography, since its origins has suffered from a dual personality my work appears to continue along that split pathway as well. I do flirt with the sunshine of life and repress my darker visions of humankind's creations. These soft, more delicate images reflect my positive, and more joyous interpretation of the human condition. Or whether, as in "Origins" of our becoming "Us", hailing mans existence or the radiant dances of the beauteous "Kristin" floating in white illuminated light, these works represent my exaltation of humankind.
I am a black and white film based photographer and my images are not digital. Some begin as black and white negatives and are transformed in my darkroom as color representations.