Peter Zelewski has built up an extraordinary set of photographic portraits, often of Londoners.
When you look into the eyes and face of one of his subjects it feels like you’re reading an extraordinary novel about someone great.
The lenses he use allow the granular detail of peoples’ character to bleed out onto the page.
At precisely 14 seconds into the video of Fil Bo Riva’s smokey love song, Franzis, I felt the same sense of awe and wonder.
The video is based on a couple, old, sat a table in a dancehall, out on a date.
Both have extraordinary physiognomies, their creases unfold and bunch to produce incredibly complex and beautiful changes of expression. Watching it is a sheer delight, I warm to them, and like Peter Bazeley’s subjects, their faces say so much and yet pose so many more questions.
The dancehall in the video, incidentally, is empty but for the dancers, the tall and elegant Filippo Bonamici crooning on stage, and a few extras sat on the periphery.
The video takes a twist and then erupts into passion.
Its almost a work of art.
And the music, full of deep resonant tones, is very catchy. Bonamici’s voice is a gravelly version of Caleb Followil’s.