LUIGI GHIRRI ^©  

(Scandiano, 1943 - Roncocesi, 1992)

(Diptych), 2 Vintage color prints (printed by Arrigo Ghi)

Cm 20 x 27 (hi) and cm 20 x 26 (low)

Both unique works

Both with a certificate of authenticity signed by Paola Ghirri in 2006

Framed (natural wood with plexi) size cm 106 x 69 x 5

Original provenance: Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia Italy

Those art critics and curators, who have been explaining and analysing the photographic work by Luigi Ghirri, agree on the same stylistic feature: the concept of the “central line” which often appears in his images. Starting from his serie “Fotografie del periodo iniziale” dated 1970 and “Kodachrome” (1970-1978), we find some primordial traces of it, like in “Reggio Emilia” 1973 (street lights) in which Ghirri almost timidly does not centralize the lines of a neoclassical palace (too easy), but let the viewer imagine it through the closed shutters of the windows which form vertical crosses in the center of the facade. Even in the ashtray with the effigy of a dancer (1971), a central shadow line pops up in the back of her straight body, dressed up in red and white. Keeping browsing exhibition catalogues, we find same kind of works in other series such as “Colazione sull’erba” (1972-1974) (in detail the photograph titled “Modena” 1973) in which a white partition of a building, cuts in half a poetic decoration with birds on one side and a climbing plant on the other. In Atlante (1973), photographs of geographical maps are perfectly divided in the center by a meridian. In “Vedute” (1971-1979), in a picture taken at Ile-de-France Rousse (1976) and in one titled “Versailles” 1977, a trellis and a pillar cut in half both landscapes with blu skies and clouds. 

In “Identikit” (1976-1979), images of libraries taken in Modena highlight in the central part of the images the most favorite book by Ghirri, “A music record guide” and “Duchamp invisibile” by Calvesi. In “Still Life” (1975-1979), shot in Modena as well, some old master paintings are photographed with central lines of shadows and holes. Up to the final image of Luigi Ghirri, before his sudden death on 14 February 1992: an irrigation channel set at the center, fading to infinity in the foggy countryside of Pianura Padana, titled “Roncocesi”, January 1992.

The dyptich by Ghirri we selected for Photology 30, is a late work by the Italian photographer, which seems the epitome of the “central line” concept. Luigi Ghirri stopped in the middle of a peripheral road and created two different images. In our imagination we can barely hear his wise thinking while setting up his camera: “I can shoot the dashed central line dividing the carragieways or I can move few steps away on the street side and shoot the line which defines the board of the countryside from the paved road”. A magical conceptual performance made by his brain more than by his eyes.

Davide Faccioli