Giacomelli began Felicità raggiunta, si cammina (Happiness is reached, walking) the year he lost his mother. The series was inspired by the Eugenio Montale poem of the same title.
‘Montale’s poem speaks of happiness hanging by a thread, which could break or take flight from one day to the next, leaving disillusionment in its place. Giacomelli observes how even the poem’s division into verses is deceptive: ‘walking’ falls in the second line, riddling the first. The state of happiness which seems to have been reached, and is so difficult to sustain, becomes a walk towards tomorrow’s uncertainty.’
(G Celant, Mario Giacomelli, Photology-Logos, 2001 / A Crawford, Mario Giacomelli, Phaidon, 2001).
