Go see this feast of 150 paparazzi images from the photographers and stars of the Dolce Vita to the Present Day’ at CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, will be on show from 13 September to 7 January – Curated by Walter Guadagnini and Francesco Zanot,
They say: In this large-scale exhibition at CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, we see the rich and famous, “along with those who would have liked to become so.” comments Walter Guadagnini, the Director of CAMERA. “There’s the Via Veneto of the 1960s, with its incredible nightlife, but there are also figures like Brigitte Bardot, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Lady D, Silvio Berlusconi, paparazzied in private situations which they perhaps would have preferred not to see placed ‘before all and sundry’.”
The exhibition Arrivano i Paparazzi! concentrates on a particular phenomenon which has taken on a fundamental role in the history of Italian and international photography, investigating its origins from the 1950s right up to its developments in contemporary imagery. The exhibition is a peculiar visual itinerary through the practice of so-called ‘stolen photography’, through which it is possible to reconstruct historical moments and phenomena of custom, in an ongoing reflection on the roles and functions of photography.
Corrado Calvo. Patrizia Pellegrino with her children play at sea on the marina beach. © Corrado Calvo
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ron Galella on Madison Avenue, New York. October 7, 1971. ©Ron Galella
Agenzia Dufoto, Fotografi alla stazione Termini assaltano l’auto di Soraya. Roma, n.d.
Marcello Geppetti, Don Gussoni litiga con il fotografo Giacomo Alexis, Roma 1959 © MGMC/dolceVita GALLERY
Furthermore, Arrivano i Paparazzi! also includes works by a number of contemporary artists who have exploited the imagery of the Paparazzi to reflect on their practices, leading it to the edge between fiction and reality. The world of fashion, often the target of ‘paparazzi strikes’, has taken on board this language, with images by the great photographer Ellen von Unwerth featuring the stars of our era, from David Bowie to Kate Moss and Monica Bellucci, and which brings together the irony of the citation with the explicitness of a female gaze, turning the victim into the protagonist.
The English artist Alison Jackson produces images reconstructing apparently stolen shots from famous celebrities like Marilyn Monroe or Lady Diana herself, in an interplay of tricks and mirrors that leaves the onlooker amazed, speechless and amused. The exhibition comes to a close with a wide-ranging project by Armin Linke, a key protagonist of contemporary photography, who worked on the archive of Corrado Calvo – a modern paparazzo made famous by his snapshots featuring Berlusconi’s holidays – a work, that by Linke, which also reflects on the themes of the archive and on the sense of a profession and of an attitude both so controversial and so fascinating.
Ellen von Unwerth, Kate Moss and David Bowie, 2003 © Ellen von Unwerth
Arrivano i Paparazzi!
From 13 September 2017 to 7 January 2018
CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia
Via delle Rosine 18, 10123