Better in the Dark
Francesco Merlini’s book “Better in the Dark Than His Rider” feels like a sleepwalker’s exploration of the liminal state between wake and dream.
The title of the book is drawn from a 19th century manual of optics, where “much better in the dark than his rider” refers to a horse’s night vision compared to a human’s. The book is a journey through photographs taken over the course of the years in different continents, edited to bring into question the distance between human and animal, our rational side and the subconscious.
Francesco Merlini’s work is all about subtext. While a description of any given image is most likely missing the point, their atmosphere suspended between dream, nightmare, memory and hallucination is what carries the thread of this night walk.
The book Better in the Dark Than His Rider is published by Départ pour l’Image and available at the price of 45 Euro.
