Paolo Ventura #Photographe
Born in Milan, a degree obtained at the Accademia Di Belle Areti, Brera Milan, after a prominent career as a fashion photographer he now devotes his time to personal projects. He collaborates with important publications such as The New Yorker, Harper's, Dea Magazine, New Yok Times. He lives an works between New York and Anghiari, Tuscany.
SELECTED INDIVIDUAL EXIBITIONS
• Pietra Santa, Incamera Gallery, 2007
• Milan, Forma, int. center of photography, 2006
• Arles, Rencontres int. de la photographie, 2006
• New York, HastedHunt Gallery, 2006
• Krakow, photomonth, 2006
• Moscow, Photobiennale, Gallery A-3, 2006
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
• New York, On The Wall, Aperture Gallery, 2007
• Milano, Luci Su Milano, New art acquisitions of Unicredit Group, Spazio Milano, 2007
• Paris, Une histoire privee, la photographie contemporaine italienne dans la collection Cotroneo,MEP- Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 2006
• Milan, Lo sguardo italiano, Rotonda Besana, 2005
BOOKS
• War Souvenir, Contrasto 2006
War Souvenir
It is World War II. The corpse of a soldier lies someplace in the mountains of central Italy; in Milan, a German hidden in the cellar of a house in Via Monte Nevoso is captured by partisans; in Turin, German soldiers look at the body of a member of the partisan organization, who has just been killed in a shoot-out. Ventura represents war as a game in a grotesque dollhouse, but he does so without abandoning either war's emotion or its pain. His photographs constitute a profound and surprising reflection on the power of documentation and memory. About War Souvenir, Francine Prose wrote: "Looking at these photos creates a moment of suspension, a melancholy hush in which we almost imagine we can hear whispers about the riddles of life and death, time and age, childhood innocence and adult knowledge, art, war, history, and such questions as: What are we seeing? What do we think we are seeing? And what we are concluding about what we think we are seeing?"
Interview Entretien avec Paolo Ventura - War souvenir Paris Photo rend cette année hommage à l'Italie, l'occasion pour nous de rencontrer Paolo Ventura. Les souvenirs de la première guerre mondiale d'un homme qui ne l'a connue que par le récit laissent place à une grande poésie. Ses mannequins prennent chez lui la place des documents historiques, une toute nouvelle définition du souvenir. Des photographies surprenantes dont Paolo Ventura nous donne les clés dans cet entretien privilégié. Entretien réalisé par Thierry Laugée pour Actuphoto.com laugee@actuphoto.com ...Livre « Planches-Contacts » de Giammaria De Gasperis : l'envers du choix des photographies
La planche-contact est la première concrétisation physique du travail d'un photographe. Sa première confrontation avec son travail et ses idées. L'étape qui suit, celle de la sélection à partir de la planche-contact, est décisive. Lorsque le spectateur apprécie une œuvre photographique, il ne réalise pas que le cliché qu'il a sous les yeux a été choisi précisément au milieu de beaucoup d'autres, et que, très souvent, c'est uniquement un petit détail qui a pu faire basculer le choix de l'artiste.
49 photographes développent ici l'histoire d'un de leurs clichés à travers des anecdotes, des détails techniques ou leur processus cré...Livre Paolo Ventura - Souvenirs de Guerre L’empreinte de la guerre reste indélébile y compris dans les mémoires de ceux qui n’en furent ni témoins, ni victimes. Paolo Ventura, 38 ans, a grandi dans les récits et les souvenirs de l’Italie des années 1940 – 1945, que ses grands-parents évoquaient dans la grande maison familiale de Toscane. Son imaginaire s’est nourri de ces fragments de la grande histoire que hantent mort, trahison, détresse morale et destruction. Photographe, il a recherché et compulsé l’iconographie de ces périodes troublées où les images ne laissaient apparaître qu’une réalité tronquée. De cet ensemble disparate mais obsédant, il a conçu de reconstruire de « vrais fau...Festival Le Festival de la Photographie Méditerranéenne ouvre ses portes du 26 mai au 19 juin Venez découvrir le festival de la Photographie Méditerranéenne du 26 mai au 19 juin.
À la Méditerranée on associe couramment une lumière, intense, incomparable. Les photographes le savent plus que quiconque. Pourtant un grand nombre de ceux qui sont présentés ici font un autre choix : celui de la nuit, de l’ombre, des lumières électriques. Les images venues de Beyrouth, où se tient une édition jumelle de Photomed, ne montrent pas la ville du plein jour, solaire, vibrante, un peu chaotique aussi. Celle qui en connaît les lieux de rencontres discrets (Lara Tabet) et celui qui y revient (Bilal Tarabey), tout comme le jeune italien qui la découvre (Giulio Rimondi), préfèrent en explorer l’intim...Festival Paris Photo 2015 : La Flatland Gallery expose Flatland Gallery is proud to announce to be part of the 19th edition of Paris Photo 2015, which will be held at the historic Grand Palais in Paris. The gallery will present the work of Paolo Ventura, Erwin Olaf, Anoek Steketee, Jeroen Robert Kramer, Katharine Cooper and Ruud van Empel.
Paolo Ventura
Italian artist Paolo Ventura is a storyteller. Each of his pictures holds its own little mystery, a concoction of atmosphere, character and detail that urges for closer examination. Ventura, like a true master illusionist, makes things disappear in front of our eyes. At Paris Photo we will show his latest work ‘The Infinite City,' which is inspired by his travels on New York City's above ground train lines as well as by Italo Calvino's writings. In this unique piece Ventura built and painted a group of...Festival Paolo Ventura - Venice Biennale 2011
Hasted Kraeutler is pleased to announce Paolo Ventura's inclusion in the Venice Biennale 2011.
Paolo Ventura has been selected for the Italian national pavilion at the Arsenale by curator Vittorio Sgarbi. Photographs from the artist's Winter Stories series will be exhibited along with new photographs from his Venice series.
Paolo Ventura has had three exhibitions with the gallery, War Souvenir (2006), Winter Stories (2008) and Winter Stories (2009-2010). Hasted Kraeutler will exhibit his new body of work, Venice, in Fall 2011. Mr. Ventura's works have been acquired by prominent public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Martin Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida. Two monographs of Paolo Ventura's work have...Festival La 6e Biennale de Moscou sur la mode et le style La 6e Biennale de Moscou sur la mode et le style dans la photographie se tiendra de fin-mars à juin dans les lieux d’exposition les plus réputés de la capitale russe : le Manège et le nouveau Manège, le musée russe d’art contemporain, le GUM entre autres.
Cette 6e biennale se propose d’explorer le thème de « Changing Beauty ». Le festival accueille plus de 60 expositions de photographie russe et étrangère dont Erwin Olaf, Lee Miller, David Lynch, Guy Bourdin, une rétrospective Christian Dior, Sibylle Bergemann, Jacques Henri Lartigue, la mode d’après-guerre avec Pierre Jahan, l’exposition du Musée d’Amsterdam FOAM ‘First American Colour 1939-1943’, les ‘Winte...Exposition Photo basel 2016 : participating galleries announced After the successful first edition in 2015, photo basel decided to move to a new location: Volkshaus Basel - a renovated architectural masterpiece by acclaimed architects Herzog & De Meuron in direct neighbourhood of Art Basel.
For the second edition, the two Directors Sven Eisenhut and Samuel Riggenbach appointed Béatrice Andrieux as Artistic Director who has implemented an international recognized Selection Committee.
This year’s fair will be pleased to welcome around thirty international galleries dealing with historical and contemporary photography which will present solo and thematic shows.
© Alain Gutharc
For the first time, photo basel will launch it’s "focus series" - presenting one focus publisher with Xavier Barral from Paris, one focus artist with Juergen...Exposition Exhibition : « Mystique Narratives » by Paolo Ventura
Flatland Gallery is very pleased to announce Paolo Ventura's (1968, Milan, Italy) first exhibition in the gallery. Known for his works that weave a mysterious atmosphere of fiction and memories, the established Italian photographer Ventura clearly has a natural gift for narrative. Each of his pictures is its own little mystery, a concoction of atmosphere, character and detail that urges for closer examination.
Giardino Autunnale, 2015, Unique work, hand painted photography and collage, © Paolo Ventura, courtesy Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam
Often his series of reflective, melancholic and partly humoristic narrative works are anchored either in the war period or in a timeless setting. Having worked as a fashion photographer for a decade in Milan, he quit and moved to New York City, where he de...Exposition Festival de la Gacilly Le plus grand Festival Photo en plein air de France. Créé il y a 12 ans, le Festival Photo Peuples et Nature de La Gacilly a réuni plus de 2,5 millions de visiteurs autour des plus grands photographes internationaux. Une photo éthique et humaniste croisant les regards de photographes issus du monde de l’art et du photo-journalisme. Un festival engagé dans le développement durable.
« Nourrir la planète, le défi majeur du XXIe siècle »
« La Terre... C’est elle qui nous nourrit, elle à qui nous devons la vie et devrons irrévocablement la survie. » Pierre Rabhi
Que mangerons-nous demain ? Comment subvenir aux besoins d’un monde qui comptera plus de 9 milliards d’habitants en 2050 ? Plus qu’un simple questionneme...Exposition Exposition « La mémoire traversée » Les photographes contemporains présentés dans l’exposition La Mémoire traversée interrogent l’Histoire à travers des traces souvent promises à la disparition : les derniers survivants de la Grande Guerre ont emportés avec eux leurs paroles, il ne reste que leurs visages ou leurs écrits, les objets qu’ils ont possédés ou les paysages qu’ils ont foulés de leurs pieds. En se les appropriant, le créateur nous dit son rapport au passé et réactive ainsi la mémoire collective. La photographie prend la forme de l’évocation, cultive le symbole, sollicite l’imaginaire de sorte que le sens se loge parfois hors du cadre de l’image. Elle revisite aussi des clichés d’opérateurs anonymes réunis sur les lieux des batailles, dans les albums de familles,...Exposition Arte Fiera Bologna and MIA present the « MIA FAIR » exhibition
MIA FAIR IN BOLOGNA
PHOTOGRAPHY AT ARTE FIERA
Photography, as one of the main media used in contemporary art, is playing a key role in the contemporary art market.
The collaboration between MIA - Milan Image Art Fair and Arte Fiera Bologna, two of the most important Italian art fairs, originates from this starting point: Arte Fiera Bologna - from 24th to 27th January - hosts indeed for the first time an entire section devoted to photography.
19 galleries have been selected for the photography section curated by MIA Fair: Al Quindici, Artistocratic, DaDa East, Dietrolequinte, Forma Galleria, mc2 gallery, Officine dell'Immagine, Galleria Pack, PH Neutro, Photographica Fine Art, RB Contemporary, Sabrina Raffaghello Arte Contemporanea, Romberg Arte Contemporanea, Galleria Six, Spazio Nuovo, Valeria Bell...Exposition Do you remember the first time ? at Atlas Gallery
Do you remember the first time ? features works by contemporary photographers Olivo Barbieri, Jim Goldberg, Nathan Harger, Adam Jeppesen and Paolo Ventura, presented for the first time in London exclusively at Atlas Gallery. Many of these exemplary contemporary artists have been exhibited internationally, and are included in museum and distinguished private collections worldwide, but have never before been exhibited in a commercial gallery in the United Kingdom.
This exhibition presents the opportunity to experience with new eyes key works by known artists who are redefining the boundaries of contemporary photography.
Olivio Barbieri takes aerial photographs of cityscapes and landscapes, creating images that look like scale models.
Nathan Harger creates high contrast black and white photographs of man-made...Exposition Paolo Ventura - The Automation of Venice
HASTED KRAEUTLER is pleased to announce The Automaton of Venice, new work by Paolo Ventura, beginning September 8 and running through October 15, 2011. This is the artist's fourth solo exhibition with HASTED KRAEUTLER, following Winter Stories in 2008 and 2009 and War Souvenir in 2006.
The Automaton of Venice was created based on a story Ventura was told as a child. The fictional story centers around an elderly, Jewish watchmaker living in the ghetto of Venice in 1943, one of the darkest periods of the occupation of the Nazis and the rule of the fascist regime in Italy. The city where the watchmaker has lived his entire life, now desolate and fearful, is the stage where this story unfolds. The old man decides to build an automaton (an anthropomorphic robot), to keep him company while he awaits the arrival of t...Exposition Paolo Ventura WINTER STORIES In Winter Stories, a luxuriously produced monograph, Paolo Ventura invents an imaginative series of photographs depicting scenes from the memory banks of on old circus performer as he looks back on his life. What the performer revisits are not moments of great drama, but rather, fleetingly recalled glimpses of an everyday life: “images that he had thought to have never seen, quick moments he unknowingly observed as he raised his eyes to the clock hung at the corner of the block”.
Using his own childhood memories, beautiful miniature figures, and sophisticated sets, Ventura re-envisions a simplex time of 1930s Italy. But his darker vision- with its shadowy backdrops and retrating figures- reminds us that this is not quite Eden. Skillfully crafted and hauntingly evocative, the work is filled with a sweet melan...Exposition Kaléidoscope d'Italie Kaléidoscope d'Italie is a compilation of the work of 32 photographers which relates the history of Italian photography from the '50s to the present day. In bringing together several generations of photographers - selected for the importance of their photographic research, their sensibilities and their different approaches - this exhibition gives a broad view of Italian photographic culture with all the wealth that it has to offer.
The relationship between art and photography is a complex one and for the first decades of the period in question two different approaches existed side by side: one artistic, the other documentary. A constructive dialogue between them proved to be difficult as they did not share any common ground.
From the '60s onwards, international artistic influences began to gain in importance...Exposition Realtà Manipolate : Come le immagini ridefiniscono il mondo L’esposizione, nata da un progetto del CCCS, con la consulenza scientifica di Brett Rogers (direttore della Photographers' Gallery di Londra), Luminita Sabau (direttrice della collezione di fotografia contemporanea DZ Bank, Germania), Martino Marangoni (direttore della Fondazione Marangoni di Firenze) e Franziska Nori (project director del CCCS), focalizzerà la propria attenzione sul significato del termine ‘realtà’ nelle ricerche artistiche contemporanee che sviluppano diverse possibilità visive di rappresentare il mondo nell’ambiguità tra reale e verosimile, concreto e apparente, presente e passato.
Le diverse discipline scientifiche hanno già definito un cambiamento paradigmatico, affermando che il “mondo reale” non esiste come categoria autonom...Exposition Manipulating Reality : How images redefine de the world The exhibition, the idea for which came from a CCCS project that availed itself of the scientific advice of Brett Rogers (director of the Photographers' Gallery, London), Luminita Sabau (director of the DZ Bank collection of contemporary photography in Germany), Martino Marangoni (director of the Fondazione Marangoni, Florence) and Franziska Nori (project director with the CCCS), will be focusing on the meaning of the term "reality" in contemporary artistic research, as it explores different ways of visually representing the world in the ambiguity that lies between the real and the verisimilar, the concrete and the apparent, the present and the past.
Several different scientific disciplines have already defined a paradigmatic change when they contend that the "real world" does not exist as an indep...Exposition Tokyo photo 2009 Japan's first art fair dedicated to still photography TOKYO PHOTO 2009 endeavors to be the foremost art fair of photography in Japan. The venue is located in the heart of international business and culture in Tokyo. To be held from September 4 to 6, Tokyo Photo 2009 will provide visitors with a unique opportunity to see and buy a wide range of photographic works from vintage prints to cutting-edge digitally enhanced images.
With the support of the US Embassy and in collaboration with the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Tokyo Photo will mount a special exhibition entitled Photo America. Featuring over 50 historical works spanning the 19th century to the present, Photo America will present a panoramic overview of American photographic expression. Virtually all of the works will be displayed for the first time in Japan.
PROGRAMMING
Lectures and seminars will...Exposition Paolo Ventura / Jasper de Beijer - Fabulous Fictions Both Paolo Ventura and Jasper de Beijer play with reality in their photographs. After all, a photograph shows what is seen through the lens. However, what if that is not actually reality, but a specially constructed version of reality? In his series War Souvenir and Winter Stories Ventura photographed events that he himself had never witnessed, bringing them to life with miniatures, scale models and dioramas. Jasper de Beijer goes even further: he makes life-size, three-dimensional models - often of paper - which he then photographs, producing images reminiscent of Victorian prints. Fabulous Fictions shows us that, in their work, nothing is what it seems.
Paolo Ventura and Jasper de Beijer, masters of narrative staged photography, do not use their camera in the traditional way, recording the world around them. They us...Exposition Paolo Ventura - Winter story CEH “Manej” (Manejnaia area, 1)
Presented by Gallery FORMA, Milan
Supported by the Italian Institute of Culture and Société Générale Vostok Bank...Exposition Paolo Ventura - Winter Stories HASTED HUNT is pleased to announce PAOLO VENTURA - "WINTER STORIES". The exhibition consist of large format color photographic narratives of life in a fictional Northern Italian town in the late 1950s. There will be an artist reception and book signing on Thursday, February 28th, from 6 to 8 PM. "WINTER STORIES" seem to be the pleasant recollections of a melancholy but dreamlike childhood. The scenes are somber street-scapes and interiors and cheerier parts of a circus. There are often groups of people who seem not to interact as well as three or four different protagonists who behave like versions of the artist himself returning to his past as a young man. The artist says this series is about "your memory of yourself", the visions that might tumble out during a dying person’s last m...Exposition Paolo Ventura Paolo Ventura, 38 ans, a grandi dans les récits et les souvenirs de l’Italie des années 1940 – 1945, racontés par ses grands-parents pendant les vacances passées dans la maison familiale de Toscane. Son imaginaire s’est nourri de ces fragments de la grande histoire que hantent mort, trahison, détresse morale et destruction. Photographe, il a recherché et compulsé l’iconographie de ces périodes troublées où les images ne laissaient apparaître qu’une réalité tronquée. De cet ensemble disparate mais obsédant, il a conçu de reconstruire de « vrais faux » souvenirs de guerre sous forme de scènes miniatures soigneusement agencées dont les photographies sont les s...Exposition Paolo Ventura - Scènes de guerre L'empreinte de la guerre reste indélébile y compris dans les mémoires de ceux qui n'en furent ni témoins, ni victimes. Paolo Ventura, 38 ans, a grandi dans les récits et les souvenirs de l'Italie des années 1940 – 1945, que ses grands-parents évoquaient dans la grande maison familiale de Toscane. Son imaginaire s'est nourri de ces fragments de la grande histoire que hantent mort, trahison, détresse morale et destruction. Photographe, il a recherché et compulsé l'iconographie de ces périodes troublées où les images ne laissaient apparaître qu'une réalité tronquée. De cet ensemble disparate mais obsédant, il a conçu de reconstruire de « vrais faux » souvenirs de guerre sous forme de scènes miniatures soigneusement agencées dont les photographies sont les seules traces. La vision de ces petits ...Modifier l'image