Franco Fontana
Encyclopedia
Franco Fontana is an Italian
photographer born in Modena, on December, 9th, 1933. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes. Fontana's photos have been used as album cover art for records produced by the ECM jazz label. He is known as the inventor of the photographic line referred to as concept of line.
, in 1965 in Turin
and in 1968 in Modena
. Since then he has participated in more than 400 exhibitions - collective and personal - and his work is bought in approximately 60 museum collections all over the world.
He has signed numerous advertising campaigns for different brands as Fiat
, Volkswagen
, Ferrovie dello Stato (National Italian Railways), Snam, Sony
, Volvo
, Versace
, Canon, Kodak, Robe di Kappa, Swissair
. He works with magazines as Time
, Life
, Vogue
(USA and France), Venerdì di Repubblica
, Panorama, and with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
and New York Times newspapers.
His works have been published in more than 40 books in various editions and languages and are displayed in many private and public collections all over the world. To name a few: MoMA, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco; Victoria and Albert Museum
, London; Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo; National Gallery, Beijing; Australian National Gallery, Melbourne; GAM, Turin.
Currently he is the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival.
He's got numerous awards, as the 1989 Tokyo Photographer Society of Japan - The 150 Years of Photography - Photographer Award.
(Francesco Guccini
)
----
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
photographer born in Modena, on December, 9th, 1933. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes. Fontana's photos have been used as album cover art for records produced by the ECM jazz label. He is known as the inventor of the photographic line referred to as concept of line.
His Style
Franco Fontana is above all interested in the interplay of colours and he had based his own vibrant and original language on that. The later critics had labeled it as Photographic Trans-avantgarde. He explored different subjects: urban landscape, portraiture, fashion, still-life and the nude. He worked with 35 mm cameras, mostly on location claiming that his studio was the world.Brief history
He began working as an amateur photographer in 1961. His first personal exhibitions took place in 1963 in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, in 1965 in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and in 1968 in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
. Since then he has participated in more than 400 exhibitions - collective and personal - and his work is bought in approximately 60 museum collections all over the world.
He has signed numerous advertising campaigns for different brands as Fiat
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
, Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, Ferrovie dello Stato (National Italian Railways), Snam, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, Volvo
Volvo
AB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
, Versace
Versace
Gianni Versace S.p.A. , usually referred to as Versace, is an Italian fashion label founded by Gianni Versace in 1978.The first Versace boutique was opened in Milan's Via della Spiga in 1978, and its popularity was immediate. Today, Versace is one of the world's leading international fashion houses...
, Canon, Kodak, Robe di Kappa, Swissair
Swissair
Swissair AG was the former national airline of Switzerland.It was formed from a merger between Balair and Ad Astra Aero , in 1931...
. He works with magazines as Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
(USA and France), Venerdì di Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
, Panorama, and with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
and New York Times newspapers.
His works have been published in more than 40 books in various editions and languages and are displayed in many private and public collections all over the world. To name a few: MoMA, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco; Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London; Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo; National Gallery, Beijing; Australian National Gallery, Melbourne; GAM, Turin.
Currently he is the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival.
He's got numerous awards, as the 1989 Tokyo Photographer Society of Japan - The 150 Years of Photography - Photographer Award.
Photography, writing with light is certainly still magic, one click leads through mysterious cemistry to develop and realize an image. But Fontana doesn't restrict himself to just the image, he transforms it to something else, probably curious about other people's life, about moments that are never his, panorama's presumable real but felt differently, dreams that were dreamt by other people somewhere one has not been. Like Elias Canetti wrote what could be the motive of every artist: "Nobody resists without a borrowed life, our own is not enough".
There are landscapes in the mind that surpass those that casually could happen in front of our eyes and they are superior. They are made of so many of those things that we do not even know where and when and how: a book we read, or a song, the memory of a person or the wish to forget, an instant moment or a long run of years, Fontana, with his brilliant simplicity (apparent simplicity, as matters from the mind and from the heart appear in a complicate way) registers this and meanwhile gives space by suggesting to enable us to fill in with our own memories.from our times, with all our own fantasmagoria as everyone of us makes.
(Francesco Guccini
Francesco Guccini
Francesco Guccini is an Italian singer-songwriter, considered one of the most important Cantautori. During the five decades of his music career he has recorded 16 studio albums and collections, and 6 live albums. He is also a writer, having published autobiographic and noir novels, and a comics...
)
----