Immagini Italiane

IMMAGINI ITALIANE

Editor's Note

The term "Immagini Italiane" may evoke the various travels delineated by Goethe, D. H. Lawrence, Mark Twain, and others; or, one might envision Paul Strand’s people of Luzzara; the Venice of Palladio and Canaletto, or Alfred Stieglitz’s Venetian boy. Pictures of piazzas articulated by magnificent duomos, packs of tourists with umbrella-waving guides, landscapes—seductive, verdant, timeless, surreal, Felliniesque—all come to mind. And so do images of the Italians themselves, careening on motorbikes, enjoying the requisite passeggiata, on strike, or—as occurred last May in Florence— gathered in solidarity against terrorism. For many, however, the appellation “Italian images” will not immediately suggest photographs by Italian photographers.

While Italian artists working in other media are touted as visionaries, Italian photography remains virtually unviewed. Yet there are countless compelling and innovative Italian photographers exploring and working in all genres. The revelation of Italian photography, the experience of Italy as seen through the sensibilities of its own photographers, and Aperture’s mission to publish work with which our audience may not be familiar—these are the forces that fueled “Immagini Italiane.”

There is a small group of profoundly committed writers and curators who have come to act as advocates on behalf of the photographers, and without whom the circumstances in Italy for photography would be practically untenable. The devotion of those who have dedicated themselves to creating a place for photography in Italy has made the process of putting together “Immagini Italiane” feasible, as well as celebratory. We are grateful for the generous collaboration and advice of Lanfranco Colombo, founder and director of II Diaframma—Kodak Cultura in Milan (Italy’s first exhibition space solely for photography), who made sure that we cast our net as broadly as possible, and who put his vast archive and wonderful staff at our disposal.

We also deeply appreciate the ideas and challenges put forth by many of the writers published in this issue and we thank them for the depth of their involvement, attention, precision, and care, and for their indispensible collaboration.

Germano Celant, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, kindly offered his input, as did Luisella d’Alessandro, Denis Curti, and Daniela Trunfio of La Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografía (under whose auspices the Biennale Internazionale di Fotografía will be presented in Turin this fall); Italo Zannier, professor of the history of photography at the University of Venice; Alessandra Dragoni and Michele Neri of the Grazia Neri agency in Milan; and the group at Fratelli Alinari in Florence.

Aperture’s exhibition of “Immagini Italiane,” at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice from August 31 to November 2, 1993, resulted from the enthusiastic and gracious collaboration of the collection’s deputy director Philip Rylands, and his assistant Renata Rossani, and from the vision of Isabella Rayburn and Ray Merritt of the Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, great friends and generous supporters of photography and the arts.

After Venice, “Immagini Italiane” will travel to the Museo Pignatelli in Naples, where it will be presented from November 15 through early January 1994, under the auspices of the Sopraintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Napoli and Incontri Internazionali d’Arte, founded and directed by Graziella Lonardi. For organizing this venue, and for her commitment and assistance to this entire project, we thank Pieranna Cavalchini of Incontri Internazionali d’Arte.

The show will travel to New York City in late January 1994, where it will be exhibited at the Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, launching its United States tour.

Finally, Aperture thanks all the photographers who shared their images with us. While preparing this publication, we reviewed many superb and diverse bodies of work—far more than we could include in these eighty pages. “Immagini Italiane” has been an exhilarating process for us, and Aperture looks forward to publishing more work by Italian photographers in future issues.

Con amicizia

The Editors