Luigi Ghirri

Copyright Luigi Ghirri


Copyright Luigi Ghirri


Copyright Luigi Ghirri

Studying painting in Braunschweig, Germany so many of my fellow students and myself included were absolutely fanatical about early renaissance Italian paintings of Giotto, pittura metafisica a la De Chirico, Carra and the still lifes of Giorgio Morandi. What I really loved about the 'Italians' was that they never beat you over the head with revolutionary ideas and concepts their works are most clearly not devoid of. The works of Morandi were simple, yet they felt appealing and sensuous. The Carlo Carra's and De Chirico's juxtapositions of familiar objects seemed to point to a mysterious world of the subconscious and preceded Surrealism. Giotto's ability to desribe his sujets virtually and involve the viewer in a stage like set were probably the most revolutionary change that came about in Western art.

I am glad that the late Luigi Ghirri's photographical work is becoming more known outside of Italy. His pictures seem to embody a lot of what 'typically Italian' means to admirers like myself.

Last year at Hasted Hunt I watched the brilliant Color before Color show curated by Martin Parr of which Luigi Ghirri was part of. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book entitled “It's Beautiful Here, Isn't It...”, here