A Corner of Home Nicolas Polli
A CORNER OF HOME
Nicolas Polli
In the days that have passed and the days that are to come, we'll all be spending more time indoors. A Corner of Home collects photographic studies and new works made by artists in their immediate environments; small snapshots of the impulse to create.
Edited by Trine Stephensen and Joanna Cresswell
1. Where are you living at the moment and how has that environment shaped you creatively? Can you tell us about a favourite detail of this place and why?
Nicolas Polli: I’m currently living in my home, close to Lausanne, Switzerland. I’ve been since January, as I recently moved from a 20m2 flat in the center of Lausanne to a shared house outside the city. For the first time since I’ve been in Lausanne – which is around 6 years – I have a lot of space around me, and this has completely changed my perception, as I can move from one room to another – that is already a big thing! – plus I now have a garden, and I can use one room of the house as a studio. That means I can definitely create a lot of mess, which is AMAZING!
My favourite detail of the house is definitely the garden… I’ve been crazy lucky to find this place, and I still don’t know how it is actually possible. My favourite detail of the detail is the garden has a BBQ! OMG!
2. How have you looked at the materials of home differently in the past weeks? Are there parts of it that have revealed themselves to you in new ways?
If I have to be honest, not so differently! I was used to this practice of shooting with what I have around me back in 2013 when I was living in Berlin. I was doing an internship as a graphic designer back then and I was missing photography so I decided to do a still life everyday. I made 176 pictures in total…it was an amazing experience! Since then, I never really found the time to consistently do the same, but now I’m practically forced to do it… and that’s not such a bad thing after all! I’ve found myself looking at objects in the same way I used to in Berlin – everything is a possible model for my shots, but at the same time I don’t want to shoot only flowers and use sunlight to create my sets… I wanted to do something more, probably looking for the weird or unexpected. Doing that, I obviously try to see objects in different ways, trying to find a new sense to practical design objects, or trying to eliminate the utility of the objects by giving them a new life. In our minds they remain the same objects – a pair of socks is a pair of socks – but you can see them differently now too.
3. Tell us about how you’ve been using photography lately? What are you making or putting in front of the lens?
I try to use simple objects in new ways. It’s a bit hard in the beginning as you have to force yourself to see a plate a bit differently. You normally want to put pasta in it, but now you need to try to see it as part of a sculpture. As I said before, I did a weird project already in Berlin, and this is not really helping because I don’t want to repeat the same images, but my objects are more or less the same :)
The goal of all of this anyway, is to respect the rules. We need to stay home for Covid-19 and I use it as a positive thing! So my three rules are: Stay home, shoot with what you have already and have fun!
Speaking about rules, I spontaneously started an Instagram page called @homelife_stilllife where I invite people to stay creative in this strange period. A lot of photographers are not used to shoot still life or used to taking pictures in a cosy environment. With this page I try to see how creative and technical people can be with just a few items.
