Antonio Ottomanelli's Collateral Landscape Maps Conflict Through Photography

Photographer Antonio Ottomanelli, born in Bari in 1983 and based between Milan and Bari, uses his project Collateral Landscape to document how conflict reshapes public space. Initiated in 2009, the work focuses on the Middle East as a lens to understand Western culture. Ottomanelli, an architect by training and founder of the photography research space Planar, emphasizes photography as a practice of responsibility and critical intervention. He immerses himself in landscapes, conducts workshops, and collects testimonies from inhabitants to reveal minor narratives often obscured by media spectacle. His work examines urban transformations such as the use of blastwalls in Baghdad—concrete barriers erected for security that constantly shift, altering city geography and restricting public freedom. Collateral Landscape was exhibited at Triennale di Milano in 2013, curated by Joseph Grima, and at Camera – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia di Turin earlier this year. The project's final phase will be a bilingual publication (Arabic and English) supported by Middle Eastern contemporary art foundations active in the West, scheduled for early 2017. The book will comprise two volumes: one on coercive control of public space, the other on its reappropriation by populations. Ottomanelli sees the book as a definitive conclusion to his engagement with Western cultural contexts.