Luigi Ghirri

Luigi Ghirri (Scandiano, 1943 - 1992) was one of the most important Italian photographers and one of the few known worldwide. He defined himself as "a little boy sitting on a low wall who captures the life that passes in front of him".
Scandiano
Luigi Ghirri

Luigi Ghirri, born in Scandiano - village of Fellegara - in 1943, began photographing in 1969, collaborating with conceptual artists and simultaneously developing an original research, always with the use of colour photography. In the seventies he composed evocative series of the various themes of vision: the natural and artificial image, the ambiguity of the contemporary landscape, the quotation of history, the imaginary of consumption. In those years, coming into contact with Massimo Mussini and Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, he began a fruitful collaboration with the CSAC (Study Centre and Communication Archive of the University of Parma), which now preserves the largest collection of his vintage prints. In 1979 the same study centre and communication archive dedicated an extensive review to him that anthologized the entire previous work and constituted a turning point for his story.

His career continued with research oriented to landscape, architecture (urged by Vittorio Savi and Aldo Rossi), collaborated with writers and musicians (including Gianni Celati, Ermanno Cavazzoni, Antonio Tabucchi, Lucio Dalla) and organized collective works, involving other photographers active on the same themes, describing the Italian landscape, including for example Journey in Italy (1984) and Explorations along Via Emilia (1986). He is certainly one of the greatest and most influential Italian photographers of the XX century, who died prematurely in 1992.

he began photographing in 1969, collaborating with conceptual artists and simultaneously developing an original research, always with the use of color photography.
he began photographing in 1969, collaborating with conceptual artists and simultaneously developing an original research, always with the use of color photography

As tribute to him, on the website Reggio Emilia Municipality Culture Focus, you can find the story of a particular object: the artist book Cardboard Landscapes, made by Ghirri in around 1974 then donated to New York-based #MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). The interview is in English, but can be subtitled in Italian.

Archives

  • In the Photo Library of the Panizzi Library in Reggio Emilia is kept the photographic Archive of the negatives and diapositives with many prints.