THE ICEBERG by Giorgio di Noto

イタリア人フォトグラファー、ジョルジオ・ディ・ノート(Giorgio Di Noto)による作品集。インターネットの世界を氷山(iceberg)に例えるなら、その90%が検索エンジンから逃れたいわゆる深層ウェブだと言われている。闇サイト、ダークウェブなどと呼ばれる秘密裏に不正オンラインビジネスが行われ、密輸業者が蔓延する場所が世界中に存在する。本書は、そこでの取引のために使用された広告イメージや、写真家自らが撮影した画像から構成されている。おそらく小さなカメラやスマートフォンで売人が撮影した写真は、被写体の神秘的でエキゾチックな美しさと、撮影スキルの低さや画質の粗さとの組み合わせが皮肉にも幻想的かつ抽象的に表れている。ボックスには書籍と一緒に薬物捜査などで使われるものと同じ紫外線ライトが付属しており、大部分が特殊インクで印刷された本書のイメージはその光を当てることによって初めて姿を現す。

The Internet can be regarded as an iceberg: the tip is the so-called surface web, the digital terrain we know and surf by means of search engines, social networks, blogs and news sites. The submerged part, roughly 90% of the iceberg, is the so-called deep web. Under the surface web that we use day in, day out, lies an encrypted and constantly evolving network of total anonymity, beyond the reach of search engines. This darknet is a lawless no-man’s land, only accessible using specific software, where anything goes and nothing is traceable, and where illicit online business, especially in contraband, proliferates. The Iceberg features a selection of stock images and original photographs drawn from the myriad ads for drug sales on the dark web designed to catch the consumer’s eye.

The original photographs, probably taken with small cameras or smartphones, often look surreal and abstract due to the mysterious, exotic aesthetic of the subject-matter, on the one hand, and the low quality of the photos or inferior skills of the drug-pushing photographers themselves, on the other. Unlike the stock pictures, these original photographs are invisible in The Iceberg under normal light: printed in invisible ink, they can only be viewed under ultraviolet light – the same light drug enforcers use to look for traces of narcotics. Anonymously uploaded and probably designed to self-erase once they’ve served their function, these pictures are not traceable or visible on the surface web, and only exist temporarily in this dark, secret space on the deep web.” — Giorgio di Noto


by Giorgio di Noto

REGULAR PRICE ¥11,550  (tax incl.)

hardcover in a box with uv light stick
128 pages
165 x 240 mm
black light printing
2017

published by EDITION PATRICK FREY