Ernesto D’Argenio: intimate dialogues
I met Ernesto D’Argenio for the first time in Rome. Our encounter became an opportunity to capture a long sequence of photographs in his most personal and meaningful places, but also to reflect on the meaning of being an actor.
Photo and words: Lorenzo Morandi
In the spring of 2018, I got in touch with Ernesto D’Argenio due to a coincidence: our common ground - besides our age - was friendship with Pierangelo Fornaro and Corrado Carosio, the musicians and composers of the soundtrack for the TV series Rocco Schiavone, in which Ernesto D’Argenio played the role of the police officer Italo Pierron. I suggested a meeting and some photographs in Rome during my stay for another project. Standing in front of the camera was nothing new for Ernesto; hence, a different and unusual approach was necessary, one that played with his personality and imaginary characters, exploring the intimate and contradictory relationship. It was a risky and ambitious project that stimulated creativity for both of us.
We arranged to meet in the Coppedè district, among neo-medieval architectures and eclectic residential buildings. Here, we had the chance to talk in person and get to know each other. The next day, Ernesto invited me to his apartment. There and on the rooftop, I captured more portraits while the blurred lights of distant cars became an extraordinary abstract background. Beba, his inseparable dog and an important presence in his private life, appeared in many shots.
The following morning, we moved to the Pigneto district: on the street, among murals on buildings, in a café, in a bookstore, and in a garage. We imagined roles and staged temporary and ephemeral situations, lasting no longer than the technical time needed to take the shot. The result is a sequence of images to be observed and freely composed, where the observer can read infinite plots, recognizing themselves in multiple characters.
Telling Ernesto's story meant listening, in his words and gestures, to the intimate dialogue he faces every day with the characters he portrays, revealing his own nature and vulnerability. It was necessary to take discrete steps along his inner journey of artistic and personal growth, filled with stimuli and pitfalls. A journey that leads him to seek in every interpretation an authentic and real extension of his own self.
If experience forges character, Ernesto D’Argenio’s owes a great deal to an exceptionally dense life; it began very early, taking him from the periphery of Milan to lengthy periods living and working in London, the Far East, Norway and France, before moving to Rome to study acting and making his debut in cinema and on the small screen. His travels continue day after day in the form of an intimate dialogue with the characters he interprets. He uses them to discover his own nature and vulnerability. This inner path, articulated, complex and often contradictory, motivates him to seek an authentic and realistic extension of himself in each role.
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