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LUiGi GHirri 1977
a great adventure PORTFOLIO CANTERGIANI
in thinking and looking
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€ 16.250
Luigi ghirri is without a doubt the most important Italian crea- struggled initially, most people found his photography prosaic
tor of the late twentieth century. It is indeed surprising that he and only a small enlightened public understood his work. Let
was rediscovered relatively recently, since just a few years ago us not forget that there was an extremely limited photography
only a few specialists would have recognised his name. Yet to- culture in Italy in those years and most photography was ama-
day a series of international publications, exhibitions and con- teur: pleasant mountain landscapes and backlit nudes. ghirri
ferences reveal an irrepressible drive to understand the work of and his surreal shots must have appeared quite alien.
the Emilian artist. ghirri’s work eludes traditional classification
as he was more a thinker than a creator. gianni Celati wrote “he photographed things nobody was inte-
rested in. he photographed the roads he took to get to work.
The ironic or romantic poetry of the photographs that we ad- Or he photographed the things in his home, his books, his at-
mire today is only a part of his intellectual output. ghirri was, lases, anything to hand. For him, the photograph gave dignity
essentially, a curious lover of poetry, philosophy and music. to those things… he wanted to remove them from the hasty
he described himself as distracted but an extremely attentive judgement of those who never really look at anything.” In 1979,
observer of the small details. In 1972, he left his job as a sur- a major anthological exhibition was organised in Parma by Artu-
veyor to devote himself to graphic design and photography. he ro Carlo Quintavalle; it was his first achievement yet it did not
36b 7.2017 highlights
