Lido (Photography)

Lido

by Allegra Martin

Allegra Martin took this series of deliciously lethargic, sun-bleached photographs in 2013 and 2014 in northern Italy. The images are part of her photographic research, which was commissioned by Osservatorio Fotografico (a photography research group based in Ravenna) for the project “Where We Live.” Osservatorio Fotografico launched this project in 2009; its goal was to build a visual archive of the city of Ravenna. 

Martin’s corner of Ravenna was Lido Adriano, a seaside town a few miles away from Ravenna. It is a town full of condominiums, Martin reports, “where you meet lives, stories, and destinies.” As she was photographing, she felt as though she was in search of something, and that something eluded her.

The spirit of this town, however, did not elude her. Her photographs truly seem to embody this little seaside town, this little condominium, these bored little old Italian men and women. Martin’s focus on place is phenomenal, lending her work a unique intimacy, creating an entire psycho-geography of this ignored locale.

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Allegra Martin was born in Vittorio Veneto and she currently lives in Milan, Italy. She graduated from the Venice Institute of Architecture in Venice. In 2015 she took part in the photographic research project “The Third Island,” and in 2012 she participated in "Welfare Spaces." Her photographs are currently on display at “On New Italian Photography” curated by Fantom at Viasaterna Gallery in Milan. Visit her website here.

Photographs by Allegra Martin are featured as part of the collective exhibition LACUNA/AE. Identity and Modern Architecture in Venice. The exhibit will be open from May 28 to August 28, 2016, at Venice’s Torre Massimiliana, on Sant’Erasmo island.

More Italian photography from the Spurl Editions blog: “Villaggio Laguna” by Francesca Gardini

Villaggio Laguna (Photography)

Villaggio Laguna

by Francesca Gardini

As part of an upcoming exhibition, Francesca Gardini, along with 16 other photographers, documented formerly industrial areas of Venice, Italy, that have since been redeveloped into residential complexes. Gardini took on Villaggio Laguna, a district that is as far from Thomas Mann’s Venice as anything could be, to show the interplay between this district’s past and its new, transformed self (the “real” Venice still looks a hell of a lot better than the “real” Los Angeles). Gardini’s photographs of this neighborhood, focusing on its architectural history and inhabitants,  are utterly gimmick-free: beautiful, simple, composed, and almost addictive. They are reminiscent of Guido Guidi’s photographs (which are gorgeously collected in the book Veramente). Guidi was in fact Gardini’s professor at IUAV, the Venice Institute of Architecture, and continues to be her mentor. The way Gardini captures people, in this series as well as in her other work, is also remarkable – her subjects appear to be just passing through, or bored, waiting for the city’s next transformation.

Nulla si crea, nulla si distrugge, tutto si trasforma. – Francesca Gardini

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Villaggio Laguna, by Francesca Gardini, will be featured as part of the collective exhibition LACUNA/AE. Identity and Modern Architecture in Venice. The exhibit will be open from May 28 to August 28, 2016, at Venice’s Torre Massimiliana, on Sant’Erasmo island.

Francesca Gardini was born in Lugo and grew up in Ravenna, Italy. She graduated from the Venice Institute of Architecture. In 2010 she took part in a photographic research project, “Get to things get to places,” in the largest complex of rock drawings in Europe, Valle Camonica (Le cose e il paesaggio, a+mbookstore, Milano), and she has been selected for the Citizenship.Giovane fotografia at FotografiaEuropea012, ReggioEmilia. Her portraits have been shown at the Fotografia.Festival Internazionale di Roma, 2014. Visit her website here, and follow her on Instagram here.