Franco Fontana. Full Color

The first great Franco Fontana's retrospective in Venice, more than 130 photographs that tell the story of his long -known photographer in the world. The exhibition, sponsored by the Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts is curated and produced by Denis Curti from Civita Tre Venezie in collaboration with Venice Cultural Initiatives .
Bright colors, bright, vibrant so as to appear unreal. Compositions punctuated by lines and planes overlapping geometries built on the light. Landscapes hyper-real, more real than real, surreal, suspended, often impossible. Deceptive proportions in which there is no room for man. Human figures revealed in the negative, sublimated into long shadows. Presence and absence simultaneously. Bodies as landscapes, hills and plains and contours anthropomorphic. These are the traits that lead immediately and unequivocally to the visual language of Franco Fontana. Divided into several thematic sections, the exhibition presents the landscapes of the early ( 60s ) through the various research dedicated to urban landscapes , swimming pools and the sea.

Born in 1933 in Modena, the city where there is already the beginning of the twentieth century rather than a photographic tradition rooted, Franco Fontana approaches to photography in the early sixtie , according to a path common to many of his generation, namely through the world of amateurs but in a city that is culturally very active, led by a group of artists conceptual matrix , although still in its infancy, among which there are Franco Vaccari , Claudio Parmeggiani, Luigi and Franco Ghirri Guerzoni. The work of Franco Fontana agrees with this current need of renewal and questioning of the codes of representation inherited , in the field of photography, from neo-realism, but also pays special attention and care outcomes and the visual aesthetic component of his research. In 1963 he takes his international debut , at the 3rd International Biennial of Color Vienna.
In the photographs of this period we see the seeds of some of those who will become his hallmarks. Above all, there is a choice of field definitely bucking the majority of his colleagues : he was among the first in Italy to side with such conviction and firmness, for the color and makes the protagonist, not as a means but as a message, not as accidental fact , but as an actor. And ' attracted to the material surface of the urban portions of walls, layers of history, details of life sculpted by light . As it was a portraitist , Fontana poses the landscape. His photographic eye chooses the best side in the knowledge that the photograph , with its shutter speed , and aperture objectives , the human eye sees the world differently.
In 1978, Franco Fontana takes a picture - symbol of his repertoire, in Zagare Bay in Apulia: a clean composition, punctuated by the color bands , played on a few color tones , essential, concise , which will be used for a campaign of the Ministry French Culture . "This photo represents my understanding of photography ," says Fontana. "I believe that this fact should not document reality , but to interpret it . The fact we have it all around , but he who does the photo that decides what he wants to express. The reality is a bit ' like a block of marble. Can you come up with an ashtray or the Pietà by Michelangelo. "
In 1979 he undertook the first of a long series of travels in the United States : Fontana does not call for no revelation , but rather applies his linguistic code , which has become , in a more urban environment , with respect to its Modena , but not alien or incomprehensible .
A few years later , in 1984 , he began a series Pools : portions of sinuous bodies of a woman ( and sometimes man ) , enhanced by bright colors , in an enclosed space , suspended , which often do not see the boundaries . In 2000 he began a series of Imaginary Landscapes , in which the invention on the real arrives at the highest level , making it clearly manifest the subtle deception theory underlying the previous production. In this case, the photographer, who does not mind the digital technology, reaffirms its freedom of interpretation of reality through the imagination. His long career is full of accolades , awards and honors worldwide , more than four hundred exhibitions in which his photographs have been exhibited and published more than forty volumes .

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