Index Naturae – Alternative version accompanies the second installation of the Index Naturae exhibition, presented in Reggio Emilia as part of the nineteenth edition of Fotografia Europea.

The publication proposes a new interpretative approach to the 116 photographic books on display, highlighting the collection as an open and evolving work. While previous attempts sought to organise and systematise the material according to identifiable research lines, this edition instead opens up to the possibility of multiple orders, allowing each contribution to recover its autonomy.

The method is based on the appropriation of “already existing” images, reproduced as photographs of photographs—partial or complete, in original scale and rendered in black and white. Through this montage strategy, new combinations emerge that generate visual short circuits, shifting the meaning of the original editorial projects and revealing unexpected connections and possibilities.

The collection of books thus becomes an inexhaustible reservoir of potential narratives, a space of selection and interpretation, and a field of multiplicity open to each viewer’s reading.