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Kodachrome
In 1978 Luigi Ghirri self-published his first book, an avant-garde manifesto for the medium of photography and a landmark in his own remarkable oeuvre. Kodachrome has long been out of print and on the 20th anniversary of Ghirri’s death, MACK is proud to publish the second edition.
‘Ghirri fights to maintain our ability to see. His works are powerful devices for the re-education of the gaze. They alter the perception we have of the world without proposing a single path to follow, rather they provide us with the tools we need to find the one we’re looking for.’ Francesco Zanot
Part amateur photo-album, Ghirri presents his surroundings in tightly cropped images, making photographs of photographs and recording the Italian landscape through it’s adverts, postcards, potted plants, walls, windows, and people. His work is deadpan, reflecting a dry wit, and is a continuous engagement with the subject of reality and of landscape as a snapshot of our interaction with the world.
This new edition of Kodachrome is published as a facsimile of the original, adopting the original design, text layout and image sequence, but using new image files scanned from Ghirri’s original negatives to take advantage of modern technology and printing methods. A small booklet is included with an essay by Francesco Zanot, which offers a contemporary perspective on the historical impact of Kodachrome, alongside French and German translations of the original texts from the book (which were published in English and Italian).
‘The daily encounter with reality, the fictions, the surrogates, the ambiguous, poetic or alienating aspects, all seem to preclude any way out of the labyrinth, the walls of which are ever more illusory… to the point at which we might merge with them… The meaning that I am trying to render through my work is a verification of how it is still possible to desire and face a path of knowledge, to be able finally to distinguish the precise identity of man, things, life, from the image of man, things, and life.’ Luigi Ghirri
Born in Scandiano in 1942, Luigi Ghirri spent his working life in the Emilia Romagna region, where he produced one of the most open and layered bodies of work in the history of photography. He was published and exhibited extensively both in Italy and internationally and was at the height of his career at the time of his death in 1992.
Photography critic and curator Francesco Zanot has been working with some of the most renowned European and international photographers, including Alec Soth and Olivo Barbieri, for over 10 years. He has participated in multiple conferences and seminars on photography in different institutions such as Columbia University in New York and the American Academy in Rome. He is associate editor of Fantom, photographic quarterly magazine based in Milan and New York.
16 page booklet with a new essay by Francesco Zanot in Italian, English, French and German; and translations of the original texts in French and German
‘Ghirri fights to maintain our ability to see. His works are powerful devices for the re-education of the gaze. They alter the perception we have of the world without proposing a single path to follow, rather they provide us with the tools we need to find the one we’re looking for.’ Francesco Zanot
Part amateur photo-album, Ghirri presents his surroundings in tightly cropped images, making photographs of photographs and recording the Italian landscape through it’s adverts, postcards, potted plants, walls, windows, and people. His work is deadpan, reflecting a dry wit, and is a continuous engagement with the subject of reality and of landscape as a snapshot of our interaction with the world.
This new edition of Kodachrome is published as a facsimile of the original, adopting the original design, text layout and image sequence, but using new image files scanned from Ghirri’s original negatives to take advantage of modern technology and printing methods. A small booklet is included with an essay by Francesco Zanot, which offers a contemporary perspective on the historical impact of Kodachrome, alongside French and German translations of the original texts from the book (which were published in English and Italian).
‘The daily encounter with reality, the fictions, the surrogates, the ambiguous, poetic or alienating aspects, all seem to preclude any way out of the labyrinth, the walls of which are ever more illusory… to the point at which we might merge with them… The meaning that I am trying to render through my work is a verification of how it is still possible to desire and face a path of knowledge, to be able finally to distinguish the precise identity of man, things, life, from the image of man, things, and life.’ Luigi Ghirri
Born in Scandiano in 1942, Luigi Ghirri spent his working life in the Emilia Romagna region, where he produced one of the most open and layered bodies of work in the history of photography. He was published and exhibited extensively both in Italy and internationally and was at the height of his career at the time of his death in 1992.
Photography critic and curator Francesco Zanot has been working with some of the most renowned European and international photographers, including Alec Soth and Olivo Barbieri, for over 10 years. He has participated in multiple conferences and seminars on photography in different institutions such as Columbia University in New York and the American Academy in Rome. He is associate editor of Fantom, photographic quarterly magazine based in Milan and New York.
16 page booklet with a new essay by Francesco Zanot in Italian, English, French and German; and translations of the original texts in French and German
- GenresPhotographyArt
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
107 people want to read
About the author
Luigi Ghirri
51 books23 followersLuigi Ghirri (Scandiano, Reggio Emilia) è stato uno dei grandi maestri della fotografia italiana. Nella sua opera ha usato la fotografia come mezzo per mettere in discussione la realtà, attraverso immagini che fanno riflettere, sulla differenza tra ciò che vediamo, ciò che rappresentano e il loro significato.
Luigi Ghirri (1943-1992) was an extraordinary photographer as well as a prolific writer and curator. He is considered to be the most important Italian photographer of the 20th century. Ghirri’s work covers a wide range of subjects mostly photographed in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. His photos are presented in a deadpan manner that is occasionally humorous and often rooted in art history. Ghirri’s landscapes are a contemporary interpretation of Metaphysical paintings in their mysteriousness and dreamlike atmospheres. They explore photographic traditions and highlight a fascination with everyday life.
Luigi Ghirri studied as a surveyor and as a graphic designer. He began taking photographs professionally at the age of 30. Shortly after, his work began attracting international attention. Time-Life magazine’s 1975 annual Photography Year Edition chose him as “Discovery of the Year”. In 1977, Ghirri founded a publishing house, Punto e Virgola, with his wife Paola Borgonzoni Ghirri. The establishment was able to support the growth of Italian photographic culture, publish important artist monographs and educate an audience that had little knowledge of photographic practice as an art form. In 1979 he published the first photobook of his own images, Kodachrome.
During the 1980s Ghirri began to photograph Italian landscapes and was singled out as one of the most significant Italian authors in the history of 20th-century photography. His conceptual photographs, coupled with a remarkable literary output, led him to produce several noteworthy photographic projects. In 1984 Ghirri curated 'Viaggio in Italia' (Italian Voyage) which included the work of Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico and Mimmo Jodice among other leading Italian photographers. The exploratory exhibition offered reflections and ideas about the country and was a milestone in the history of Italian contemporary photography. In 1989, he published 'Il Profilo delle Nuvole' (Cloud Profiles) which included exclusively Ghirri’s captivating images and represents his highest achievement. Ghirri exhibited throughout Italy during his relatively brief life.
[continue reading from the source]
Luigi Ghirri (1943-1992) was an extraordinary photographer as well as a prolific writer and curator. He is considered to be the most important Italian photographer of the 20th century. Ghirri’s work covers a wide range of subjects mostly photographed in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. His photos are presented in a deadpan manner that is occasionally humorous and often rooted in art history. Ghirri’s landscapes are a contemporary interpretation of Metaphysical paintings in their mysteriousness and dreamlike atmospheres. They explore photographic traditions and highlight a fascination with everyday life.
Luigi Ghirri studied as a surveyor and as a graphic designer. He began taking photographs professionally at the age of 30. Shortly after, his work began attracting international attention. Time-Life magazine’s 1975 annual Photography Year Edition chose him as “Discovery of the Year”. In 1977, Ghirri founded a publishing house, Punto e Virgola, with his wife Paola Borgonzoni Ghirri. The establishment was able to support the growth of Italian photographic culture, publish important artist monographs and educate an audience that had little knowledge of photographic practice as an art form. In 1979 he published the first photobook of his own images, Kodachrome.
During the 1980s Ghirri began to photograph Italian landscapes and was singled out as one of the most significant Italian authors in the history of 20th-century photography. His conceptual photographs, coupled with a remarkable literary output, led him to produce several noteworthy photographic projects. In 1984 Ghirri curated 'Viaggio in Italia' (Italian Voyage) which included the work of Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico and Mimmo Jodice among other leading Italian photographers. The exploratory exhibition offered reflections and ideas about the country and was a milestone in the history of Italian contemporary photography. In 1989, he published 'Il Profilo delle Nuvole' (Cloud Profiles) which included exclusively Ghirri’s captivating images and represents his highest achievement. Ghirri exhibited throughout Italy during his relatively brief life.
[continue reading from the source]
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2020
Seconda edizione, finalmente pubblicata nel 2012 dalla casa editrice inglese Mack, del libro di Luigi Ghirri autopubblicato nel 1978 e poi diventato introvabile.
Un libro con 92 fotografie e testi dello stesso Ghirri e di Piero Berengo Gardin (il cugino del grande fotografo Gianni Berengo Gardin), accompagnato, in questa mia edizione del 2019, da alcuni saggi in più lingue, tra cui ho apprezzato quello di Francesco Zanot, giovane curatore, saggista ed insegnante di fotografia.
Le fotografie pubblicate non sono di facile classificazione, appaiono come una sorta di cartoline che descrivono luoghi reali, cartelli pubblicitari, fotomontaggi “veri” (ossia foto di fotomontaggi); tutte foto che, a prima vista, fanno rimpiangere il fatto di non averle scattate anche noi, tanto sembrano semplici da fare.
Ma alle spalle di quegli scatti, tutti a colori come suggerisce già il titolo del libro che evoca la famosa pellicola per diapositive (già celebrata da Paul Simon nella omonima canzone del 1973), c’è una ricerca dell’essenziale, della composizione studiata in ogni dettaglio, anche in quello che può sembrare qualcosa fuori posto.
Sono foto intense, evocative, che narrano silenziosamente paesaggi, luci, linee, immagini riflesse; certamente per esse non si può parlare di momento decisivo, come ad esempio per quelle di Cartier-Bresson, bensì le definirei come lo sguardo poetico di un grande artista.
4,5*
Un libro con 92 fotografie e testi dello stesso Ghirri e di Piero Berengo Gardin (il cugino del grande fotografo Gianni Berengo Gardin), accompagnato, in questa mia edizione del 2019, da alcuni saggi in più lingue, tra cui ho apprezzato quello di Francesco Zanot, giovane curatore, saggista ed insegnante di fotografia.
Le fotografie pubblicate non sono di facile classificazione, appaiono come una sorta di cartoline che descrivono luoghi reali, cartelli pubblicitari, fotomontaggi “veri” (ossia foto di fotomontaggi); tutte foto che, a prima vista, fanno rimpiangere il fatto di non averle scattate anche noi, tanto sembrano semplici da fare.
Ma alle spalle di quegli scatti, tutti a colori come suggerisce già il titolo del libro che evoca la famosa pellicola per diapositive (già celebrata da Paul Simon nella omonima canzone del 1973), c’è una ricerca dell’essenziale, della composizione studiata in ogni dettaglio, anche in quello che può sembrare qualcosa fuori posto.
Sono foto intense, evocative, che narrano silenziosamente paesaggi, luci, linee, immagini riflesse; certamente per esse non si può parlare di momento decisivo, come ad esempio per quelle di Cartier-Bresson, bensì le definirei come lo sguardo poetico di un grande artista.
4,5*
August 31, 2017
il primo libro di Ghirri, 1978, due anni dopo la mostra di Eggleston al MoMA, cioè dopo l'ingresso della fotografia a colori nell'alveo del campo artistico. Anni importanti, libro importante e come si suol dire "seminale", ben riprodotto in questa seconda edizione 2013 a cura dell'inglese Mack. Le fotografie sono un documento storico importante e restano fresche come allora. I contributi testuali un po' meno (non tanto quello di Ghirri, quanto quello di Piero Berengo Gardin, architetto cugino del ben più noto fotografo - buono invece il testo - contemporaneo - aggiunto in appendice a firma di Francesco Zanot).
December 6, 2021
Un livre génial. Je suis très ému par les photographies de Luigi Ghirri, qui m'enseigne beaucoup sur la composition des images comme du livre en lui-même. Il met en place plusieurs stratégies pour s'approcher d'une photographie conceptuelle, sans jamais perdre de vue une sensibilité et un rapport à l'esthétique. Cela en fait un travail intelligent et agréable dont la qualité est indéniable. Tout de même, j'ai l'impression que le début du livre a plus de force que la fin.
April 16, 2023
Se potessi passerei le mie giornate a guardarlo.
March 24, 2014
The extreme appeal of these images has something to with a casualness combined with a strange presence, a harbinger of something greater. What is this "greater"? Perhaps the viewer's compulsion to be involved in the image, a grand trickery that swaps a place the viewer will never be for a sensation that they must have been there, and still must be.
Yet this responsibility doesn't feel urgent. First of all, the images are accessible, loudly quiet. From Zanot's essay: "Undoubtedly these are simple subjects, plucked from the outskirts of towns, or of popular culture, apparently bereft of dignity, certainly bereft of monumentality, which he approaches with a special hybrid of tenderness and rigour."
Second, they have an air of oddity, mystery, and forsaken order.
Again, from Zanot: "The visible and invisible are the opposites that Kodachrome attempts to reunite. Its peculiarity lies in its ability to complete this ambition without exploiting the rhetoric of metaphor. Within each image we do not find subjects which directly substitute others that have been excluded from the frame, but what may be seen draws on a rich semantic universe which goes far beyond the limits of the photogram. Ghirri's practice is not designed to make the invisible visible. On the contrary, it seeks out a way to hide the evidence. His photographs are activated by the mystery of this missing element, establishing an analytical approach expressed through a genuine path of existential development. Apart from the frame itself, he uses a variety of devices and strategies to bring about this absence in every image...the preservation of these clouded areas is at the heart of the ambiguity which sets off the dynamics of Ghirri's images, enhancing their depth. In order to measure it we need to take the distance between what appears on the surface and infinity, where everything else takes place."
Yet this responsibility doesn't feel urgent. First of all, the images are accessible, loudly quiet. From Zanot's essay: "Undoubtedly these are simple subjects, plucked from the outskirts of towns, or of popular culture, apparently bereft of dignity, certainly bereft of monumentality, which he approaches with a special hybrid of tenderness and rigour."
Second, they have an air of oddity, mystery, and forsaken order.
Again, from Zanot: "The visible and invisible are the opposites that Kodachrome attempts to reunite. Its peculiarity lies in its ability to complete this ambition without exploiting the rhetoric of metaphor. Within each image we do not find subjects which directly substitute others that have been excluded from the frame, but what may be seen draws on a rich semantic universe which goes far beyond the limits of the photogram. Ghirri's practice is not designed to make the invisible visible. On the contrary, it seeks out a way to hide the evidence. His photographs are activated by the mystery of this missing element, establishing an analytical approach expressed through a genuine path of existential development. Apart from the frame itself, he uses a variety of devices and strategies to bring about this absence in every image...the preservation of these clouded areas is at the heart of the ambiguity which sets off the dynamics of Ghirri's images, enhancing their depth. In order to measure it we need to take the distance between what appears on the surface and infinity, where everything else takes place."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews