Giacomo Brunelli creates extraordinary photographs of animals, both living and dead, using a Miranda Sensomat camera from 1968 that once belonged to his father. His photographs are taken during daily morning walks when the light is best and his subjects are those randomly encountered along the way.

The black and white images are printed by hand in a makeshift darkroom. The images are dramatic, powerful and intriguing, sometimes comic and occasionally tragic and offer a refreshing change in this age of digital technology.

Giacomo’s images are small and extremely intense with black borders and rounded corners. They show dogs with glowing eyes, aggressive, feral looking cats; horses in unusual poses and creatures emerging from darkness. This exhibition lets us into a dark world of menace and strangeness. Even though some of these animals may be pets, these images demonstrate how close to the wild they really are, by often being shown roaming the streets in a world completely separate from ours.

Street Level Director Malcolm Dickson says “I met Giacomo at the Rhubarb International Review in Birmingham 2 years ago, where his images captivated me. I was delighted to see a solo show of that same work at the New Art Gallery in Walsall recently, who had supported its presentation. It is fitting that this is the last show at our temporary home, a testament to traditional black and white photography, its timelessness, and its capacity to move us”.

Most of the shots have been taken in Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio in Central Italy. Some of the later images have been taken in the outskirts of Rome where he now lives.