Gianni Pezzani

Biography

Gianni Pezzani was born in Colorno, a small town in the Province of Parma on June 18, 1951. He attended the University of Florence where in 1979 he graduated in Agricultural Sciences.

Work

His knowledge of chemistry, learnt during his university studies, allowed him to undertake research on photographic toning in the late 1970s. This allowed him to be amongst the first photographers in Italy to become involved in the study of colour, freeing himself from the predominance of black-and-white photography.

Thanks to the research on photographic toning in 1981 he was chosen by Time Life as one of the six most important up-and-coming photographers of the year; his portfolio was published in the yearbook Photography Year.

He has been working for Condé Nast since 1981. He combines fashion photography with research that in 1981 lead him to realize a series of photographs during a trip to the United States in the company of Franco Fontana. These works are shown at the Galleria Civica in Modena in 1984. The same year he too part in a travelling exhibition on Italian photography atone of the more important galleries in China.

In 1984 moved to Japan, where he worked for Mamiya and begins to design clothing.

Between 1984 and 1993 he traveled from Tokyo to Bali and then to New Zealand.

In 1993, after returning to Italy, he moved to Milan, but maintained a refuge in an old house in Torrechiara, in the Province of Parma, at the foot of a castle.

In 2008 he started “Milano Notte”, new work in which the Lombard city is photographed in its nocturnal solitude. He will conduct the same work in the city of Tokyo between January 2010 and December 2011. One of his most recent projects, begun in 2010 and still in progress, is “Mouche à lire”: carefully selected pages of books on which to place a fly, immortalizing the dipteran on the written page, evidence of a long devotion and passion for reading.

Another of his most recent projects is "Magnetica": the research consists in putting on a magnet rotating at a steady speed, paper prisms or small objects made of glass or plastic that, thanks to the long exposure time of the camera; those make the illusion of three-dimensional shapes.

The last published project is "Tensione superficiale": it focuses on the return of the chemical phenomenon that is highlighted in images where the water falls form spherical geometries, that the human eye can hardly grasp.

Margini, viaggio senza ritorno (1978-1985)

It is the author’s first project. Mainly shot around Colorno, it is made of a group of images where the author shoots the landscape from the inside of a car, so that the automobile is visible. In another group of images the car is abandoned at the side of the road and the framing is focused on both the automobile and the surroundings. In the last group of images abandoned farmhouses, level crossings and filling stations are found. The photographs were toned by the author himself, with his own chemical recipes.

Cucina della mamma sorpresa nella notte (1980-1983)

The author shot in his own house. Most of the images focus on common objects like the phone, plates, a sponge or a cup. The photographs were toned by the author himself.

Troppo cazzo (1980)

The project consists in reinterpreting the Parma lowland adding a plastic phallus to the scenario, an alienating, ironic and intentionally provocative presence.

Passeggiata a Pisa (1981)

The project originates from the request of Giacinto Gnudi, the then president of the Tourism Agency of the Province of Pisa, to produce a photographic documentation of the city. The historical inner city is almost always represented without the human presence.

USA (1982)

Photographs were taken during a journey in the USA together with the photographer Franco Fontana. The projects shares many points in common with "Margini, Viaggio senza ritorno", one being the investigation on the relationship between the automobile and the landscape.

Tokyo perduta (1985-1987)

The project consists in blurred pictures of the city of Tokyo. The objective of the author was to return the emotional stiffness of the city.

Humus (2004-2013)

The series focuses on documenting the hills nearby Parma and in particular the woods and the trees in that area.

Milano Notte (2008-2015), Nippon Night (2011), Parma dorme (2013-2014)

The three projects include shots taken at night. The main feature is again the absence of human beings and the relationship between the automobiles and the city architectures.

Mouche à lire (2009-2015)

Photographs immortalize dipterans leaned on pages of books written by the authors that characterized the author’s readings, such as Kerouac, Kafka e Flaiano

Magnetica (2014-2015)

One of Pezzani's most recent projects is “Magnetica”: the research consists in putting on a magnet rotating at a steady speed, paper prisms or small objects made of glass or plastic which give the illusion of three-dimensional shapes thanks to the long exposure time of the camera.

Tensione superficiale (2016)

The project focuses, as the title suggests, on the return of the chemical phenomenon that is highlighted in images where the water falls form spherical geometries, that the human eye can hardly grasp.

Main publications

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