Ferdinando Scianna never considered himself as a pure landscape photographer or portraitist, nor thought of himself as an artist, a fashion photographer or a pure photojournalist, despite having been a member of the photographic agency Magnum Photos since 1982 (first Italian to join the agency).
Yet, landscapes are on show at the Spazio Meravigli venue, in Milan: a b&w story conveying emotions thanks to images from all over the world: from Sicily to Ivory Coast, from Val Padana to South America or Russia. Istanti di luoghi is an exhibition as well as a book: anyhow it’s the result of a research within the immense photographic production of Ferdinando Scianna, where landscape has been a constant presence since the beginning of his career. Unlike his latest books, Istanti di luoghi (Contrasto publisher) is a story told only with images, except for an epigraph by the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia: “Ce ne ricorderemo di questo pianeta” (We will remember this planet).
“Photography is both story and memory”, Scianna says, suggesting “to observe each photo, any photo, as if it were stored in our family album, because each one conveys consciousness, emotions and memories, including those which are part of Istanti di luoghi”. The book/exhibit brings together pictures Ferdinando has been collecting for decades, observing the world through his camera in order to experience it and attempting to tell it.
“There are no topical places in my landscapes: I’ve been travelling all around the world to shoot photos and sometimes I found a particular place. Observing the world is the photographer’s purpose. It means joining the reality and being made aware of it, I would say. It seems I’ve met all these landscapes while I was doing something else: I was not looking specially for them. Indeed, now and then a place or a person demanded of me to be photographed”, Scianna adds. At that very moment they share their time with the photographer’s time.
“I always thought I take photos because the world is there, the world is not there for me to shoot pictures. I just found the places (maybe some spots are emotionally more important than others). I stumbled across them and I shot, then I choose some of the many images these spots gifted me with”, Ferdinando states.
They are not monuments nor touristic sites. Instead they reflect a symbiotic relationship between them and the photographer, regardless of it’s a desert landscape, a seaside view or a glimpse of a city skyline.
“Are they places of the soul”? Maybe they are. Some salt lake hexagonal shapes, for example, reminded me the crochet blanket pattern my mother used to work on. My photos are emotional, but not sentimental, they are political, but are not laying claims. I love the world, life and people: I photograph them trying to get acquainted with them, to know myself better, to express feelings and emotions around me, to produce visual records. Surely, photography never ceased to move me: it’s my job but it’s also my life.
Photography gives us solid memories. It seems designing and making books was the main goal for all my shooting. I try to sum up what I experienced in a book, trying to communicate passion for reality and life. An exhibit can be considered a book extension, for books include exhibits as well as the author’s imagination and consciousness”, Scianna says.
The exhibition at Forma Meravigli (an initiative by Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia in collaboration with Camera di Commercio di Milano and Contrasto) is enhanced by the Portrait of an Author in 16 published books (and Some never realized, a specific area hosting Ferdinando Scianna’s books, which includes also the maquettes of some volumes Ferdinando “composed” for himself. The exhibit is on during the 12th edition of Milan Photofestival, the annual exhibition circuit dedicated to fine-art photography which take place in the whole metropolitan area.
Paola Sammartano
Paola Sammartano is a journalist specialized in arts and photography based in Milan, Italy.
Ferdinando Scianna, Istanti di Luoghi
April 20 to July 30, 2017
Forma Meravigli Gallery
Via Meravigli 5
Milano 20123
Italy
