Journey

How many times have we heard the phrase “Life is a journey”? (“Life is a journey and those who travel live twice” is the full aphorism of ʿUmar Khayyām).

In 2022 Riaperture, for the sixth edition of its Festival of Photography, wants to talk about travel, in all its forms, means and possible declinations, whether they are real or imaginary: physical or emotional, outer or inner, in space, time or imaginative.

We come from a long period in which physically moving from one place to another was at times discouraged, at times limited to necessity and at times forbidden for our own safety. In this gradual and, we hope, irreversible path towards the infamous recovery of normality, we would like to return fully to live the journey as an exercise in wonder in front of Nature, in a city or in contact with a people, without forgetting the introspective experience that distance has imposed on us.

We’ve been traveling for months with our minds on the couch, reading a book, having a dream, looking out the window, walking on virtual streets inside a monitor with the eyes of Pegman (the little yellow man of Google Maps). Now we would like to extend this great story, expand our horizons and make new journeys by writing our logbook, sending postcards together with new travel companions.

Travelling is a displacement, a movement made along a journey, in stages or all in one breath, fast or slow, with every possible means of transportation, from our legs to an interstellar space probe, to a purely psychological and introspective motion. Whether in the world or within ourselves, it always generates a change, a transformation or an evolution, a different way of seeing things, whether they are the same as in our daily lives or new discoveries. Traveling is observing, searching, understanding, tasting, listening, smelling, studying, confronting what is perceived as external to us, even in inner journeys. To experience the journey is to appropriate the unknown, transforming it into experience, stories, memories.

During the journey, all kinds of connections are created, from neuronal to interpersonal ones, and with the spaces crossed and the means used. There is a different perception of time that seems to dilate: the mind is subjected to stimuli and the body has new sensations that tend to fix themselves, creating new memory especially if they are unfamiliar.

Travel time does not coincide only with displacement, but is much longer. The journey begins with its plan, the itinerary, which is awaited until the eve of its beginning, arousing emotions and creating expectations; then comes the departure and the journey is a sequence of adventures and discoveries, sometimes choices to be improvised, sometimes confirmations of previous choices, the mind opens up and the body follows. Slowly, commonplaces are broken down and the return is not yet the end of the journey, which in fact never ends in memory. The return is the experience and how we treasure it in our time to come. “The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in having new eyes” wrote Marcel Proust.

The theme of travel makes us reflect on globalization, on the opportunities of displacement, on the traceability of connections, on maps, on guides. It makes us reflect on the proportions of travel. It makes us reflect on the environmental impact of tourism or migration, on seasonality and how environmental conditions and climate change can affect the environment itself, on political decisions or simply on places and times. It asks us about the baggage we need to carry, made of personal affections, to survive, to adapt, but also of preparation and knowledge.

Yes, life is a journey of seeking out landscapes, people and experiences, inside and outside of ourselves, to try and observe in new ways with curiosity, openness and flexibility. Whether it’s necessity or curiosity that drives people to take their own journey, at any age and in any place, it always serves to put us in different perspectives that can lead to reshaping the ending.

And yes, traveling does take a lot of pictures, even with the heart.