Mira Cantone
Mira Cantone, was born in Catania in 1952, and completed her formal education at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Catania and then at ISIA, Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche in Urbino
Having completed her degree, she moved to the north of Mexico to work for various public and private institutions, focusing on graphic design, illustration and photography. During her long stay in Mexico she honed her artistic skills, concentrating on photography as a means of research, study and communication.
In the mid 1980s she returned to Catania and began her career as a teacher, specifically at her alma mater, the Istituto Statale d’Arte, which subsequently became the Liceo Artistico M. Lazzaro. She retired from her position in 2018.
Her photographic career initially centered on the use of film and darkroom. With the advent of digital photography, her analog laboratory experience transformed into digital laboratory experience, using Photoshop whilist mainitaing all the components that characterize visual expression, which are so paramount in photography.
To this day she continues her photographic research, carrying out projects relating to her home territory, in the Catania and Ragusa areas. She currently teaches private courses on digital and analog darkroom.
Website: www.miracantone.it
PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORDS OF A LANDSCAPE AROUND COMISO, RAGUSA
JANUARY-JUNE 2013
Quoting Tabucchi who writes about Ozu, one of Bufalino’s favorite directors:
“… its most beloved landscapes are usually places where the city unravels in poor suburbs or in the countryside…” I wondered how to define a visual experience of the territory with the photographic lens having chosen to investigate aspects of the landscape that revolves around Comiso.
Starting from Scicli I made occasional episodes in Comiso to visit an exhibition or for a patron saint’s feast. This time I was guided by my friend Salvatore Schembari, who, with the enthusiasm he instills in his rich and cultured descriptions, helped me to elaborate a perspective of the space to be considered, as well as to suggest significant places of a historical identity of the place…
… Bufalino writes: “A country, after all, what else is it if not a living creature, that is born, grows, ages, dies and is reborn, according to the alternation of generations?” Bufalino revealed to me in his writings, especially in those that refer to his beloved city, some itineraries: from the Ippari river to the mouth along the sea that bathes Scoglitti; from the Muraglie district to the stone quarry contained in the Cozzo di Apollo and others.
And so my frequencies in Comiso have followed each other during the winter and spring months going back several times the same places to breathe with my mind and eyes those rhythms that the light and colors mediate on the landscape of Comiso.