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A widowed woman unable to carry on and who only lives in the odd chapters.
A fundamentally optimistic man who lives in the even chapters and is about to find out a shocking truth about his own identity.
These are the premises of Magpies, a 150 pages long graphic novel about loss, love and the quest for the real self.
This is a project that has been going on for years, often neglected for long periods of time, always haunting me in the back of my mind.
I used analogue and digital techiques, in form of photographs, collages, drawings and photomontages; I wanted to break free from restrictions imposed by my work: I didn’t want to spend my time caring about the rules of how a photograph should be made, I don’t like all the fuss around the “digital vs analogue” issue, I don’t care how much post production is put into a single photo. All I wanted was to grab the images I had in mind and spread them onto a piece of paper so that they would stop bugging me.
Using a medium like the graphic novel to tell a story, I was able to explore narrative possibilities which are very different from those granted by a single photograph or even a series of photos.
Combining text and images, I can look at a concept from different points of view simultaneously, creating a bond with the reader, who is to participate more actively in the unfolding of the plot, creating a short circuit between words and pictures.
There are more layers.
The title refers to a traditional nursery rhyme for children that goes:

The narrative is divided into seven chapters, which mimic the rhyme and try to shed light on one question: who are we, really? And how do we change when we relate to other people around us?

“One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret Never to Be Told”.

The narrative is divided into seven chapters, which mimic the rhyme and try to shed light on one question: who are we, really? And how do we change when we relate to other people around us?

digital version

Here’s the high-resolution DRM-free pdf.
Click the button to download right away.

print version

Even with all the bell and whistles of the digital era, we still believe nothing beats turning actual paper pages.
We ship only to Italy

I’m not sure I’m comfortable sitting under the word “author”, but “about the weirdo who did all the job” didn’t sound fancy enough, for some reason.

My name is Sara Lando.
I’m an italian photographer who likes to tell stories that never happened.
I like to mix things and experiment, I like to play with paper and I like to spend time indoor while the cool kids play outside.
I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m doing it anyway.

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