User:MaryAaronDavid

A Series of Thoughts and Comments about the Photography of Edward Donato aka Eduardus Donatella. By Mary Aaron David.

Photographer, Edward Donato b. September 25, 1971, Los Angeles. Also known as, Eduardus Donatella. Noted for his unique style of large format old world black & white photography. The son of a prominate missionary family, Edward Donato practiced as an adolescent by documenting his family's evangelical work in Eastern Europe and South America. He contiued to the photograph theological missions into adulthood, and pursed the ministry himself, completing seminary before turning to photography full-time. Edward Donato wrote and directed the feature film "Jesus Is Coming",released in 2002. A violent tale of a street corner evangelist who was mysteriously kidnaped and murdered, shortly after meeting a series of dysfunctional and crazed Hollywood characters. The cast includes Gloden Globe winner Ron Perlman, Heather Whalquist and Paige Moss.

Edward Donato's black & white photography evokes nostalgia, both pleasurable and troublesome, as the contained images emerge at odds with the history they seem to represent. In these works, familiar elements mark human relationships with morality and the natural world. The settings appear starkly; bridges and buildings alternate with fields and forests. The subjects, however, materialize in unexpected ways: a girl stands blurred in her prom dress in front of a house, a figure trailing smoke jumps from a tall bridge, a woman tries to inhale from a antiquarin contraption of hoses and tanks. Sometimes bleak and sometimes fanciful, these images actively distrub expected balances of light and dark. Such photographic investigations result, in part, from the artist's contiuing reflections of his upbringing and religious training. A conflicted, and perhaps somewhat surrealist, perspective is brought to bear on worlds otherwise so clearly defined.

Photographer's website address and links: www.cinemaopulentus.com www.cinemaopulentus.com/CinemaOpulentiaHummingbirdLaneMovieIndex.html www.cinemaopulentus.com/CinemaOpuletusJesusIsComingMoviePage.html www.imdb.com