Photography or painting? Everything comes from the history of art, from the beginning of photography, and continues in parallel with the evolution of the techniques of painting and photography.
Now that digital has made everyone “photographers” feels stronger than the need to understand why you do the photographs, and this need leads directly to a new tradition, far from the “photographic pictorialism” the beginning of the twentieth century, but much more focused on a historical genesis of the images and a complex construction that passes through a thorough research of materials and techniques, without falling into the rhetoric of the ancient. Thus was born in a spontaneous way to look at the whole tradition and contemporary visual art of past centuries by many photographers, born joint work between artists using different techniques, and photography is the ultimate means of endless thoughts of representation.
Everything starts with five great photographers that you can join in the tradition of photography “documentary” of the second half of the twentieth century: Graciela Iturbide, Tod Papageorge, Paul Fusco, Chris Killip and Don McCullin.
Arriving at the fifth edition of the PhC Capalbiofotografia, in a small and beautiful festival, and also nice because small, which is held in a town that has seen live and many of the most important figures of the art of the twentieth century (by Giovanni Urbani Fabio Mauri from Giosetta Fioroni Niki de Saint-Phalle, and many others), the need to think about the strong and noble tradition that binds many thoughts on photography and coming off of course, and also partly stimulated by the first four editions of our festival in which we hosted many of the top stars of contemporary photography. Responses to “photography or painting?” Only ever have one thing in common and that is the centrality of the photographic medium and the study of its potential always starting from the enormous theoretical knowledge of art history and all the implications and processes that lead to the construction of an image.
Starting with Killip, Papageorge, Fusco, McCullin and Iturbide emphasizes two points: the desire to link the classical photography to contemporary photography; and attributed to art photography, which comes only from a strong personal need without assignments behind, a tremendous value that breaks down the wall of division between artists and photographers.
These are the ideas with which we started for the fifth edition of PhC Capalbiofotografia.
PhC 2013: Photography or Painting?
PhC Capalbiofotografia Festival — V edizione
Sabato 30 marzo — Domenica 5 maggio 2013
A cura di Marco Delogu, prodotto da Maria Concetta Monaci
Tod Papageorge
Chris Killip
Graciela Iturbide
Don McCullin
Paul Fusco
Marco Delogu, Giosetta Fioroni, Paolo Ventura, Karmen Corak, Alessandro Dandini de Sylva, Dione Roach
Eli Geller, Simone Mauro, Francesco Minucci, Attilio Navarra, Hyena,
Manfredi Gioacchini, Gianni Mascolo, David Schivo
