At first glance, many of Paolo Ventura’s pictures look close to ‘real-life’ but in actual fact, they are all miniature recreations of scenes.
Are they accurate depictions or pure imaginations? It’s hard to tell but nothing that Ventura does is accidental. Each element in the diorama he creates is carefully thought out.
While war is brutal and such interpretations can often be mistaken and thus dismissed as childish and frivolous, Ventura’s pictures are quite the opposite.
In fact, despite the figurines being constructed out of plastic, rubber, or of any material the Italian artist deems appropriate, they elicit the same emotional tugs of ‘real’ pictures made in the battlefield.
Of course we can safely assume that many scenes are results of composites of many scenarios that he has researched and referenced, but what’s wrong with that?
In the same breath, we can also say that he has probably exercised the options to simplify complex situations into something easier to comprehend.
Bottom line is — are they less moving just because they are not what we are more accustomed to?
I don’t think so.
