Paolo Rosselli

Press Release

Paolo Rosselli

If I have to think of what it is that binds these photographs together, what comes to mind is a curious word like ally; in other words there is an agent that a photographer must find at all costs before starting to look at reality. In this case the ally is the figure that looks out from the car, a doll, the figure of a manga woman who plays at one and the same time the role of spectator and actor in the city. To tell the truth this figure does not have a meaning or a connection with the landscape, and yet it attracts, amuses, takes the observer by the hand and in its own way shows him what is going on outside. Does photography look reality in the face? On the surface it would appear to do so, but then things turn out differently because anyone who looks at the confused and jumbled skyline of the city realizes that something else is needed to recount this reality, and that is a simulation; writers know that truth and fiction always go hand in hand and that to talk about reality it is necessary to invent a speaker and someone who runs the show. In the cities that I have photographed in recent years I have thought about the space and not the historical objects; I looked at details and decided that the most sensible thing was to carry out a sort of merger, to unite rather than to separate on the basis of a hierarchy. The photographic document has not vanished, it just has a more concise form that compresses everything into a single image in which almost everything is comprised, including people. Today people are the city; in this fluid, refracted space from which history has disappeared, people move around, taking upon themselves reflections, adverts, coloured lights.

Paolo Rosselli was introduced to photography at the age of 20 by Ugo Mulas. After the degree in Architecture he begins a series of long journeys in India with Arturo Schwarz. During these long stays he begins assembling photographic profiles of Indian cities. Since then, his approach to architecture through photography evolves in other directions, to contemporary architecture in Europe; towards masters of modern architecture as Giuseppe Terragni, and in the direction of the Renaissance architecture in Italy. Beside this activity, he has pursued specific researches on contemporary urban landscape and on the interiors of the home, seen as a place where people leave traces of their living. He was invited to the Venice Biennial in three editions, in 1993, 2004 and 2006. Recently, he has started to write on photography and about the changes in the perception of the real world after the introduction of the digital technique. In all, he is author of around twenty books. He lives and works in Milano.

Books

Scena mobile. Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012.
Sandwich Digitale. Quodlibet, Macerata, 2009.
Giuseppe Terragni Atlante. Con Attilio Terragni e Daniel Libeskind, Skira, Milano 2004.
Dislocation. Solea Fotografia, Milano 2002.
Architecture in Photography. Introd. Dennis Sharp, Skira, Milano 2001.
Das Italien Jacob Burckhardts. Testo di Ulrike Jehle, ArchitekturMuseum, Basel 1997.
Paolo Rosselli, Messaggi Personali. Testo di Alberto Crispo, CSAC Parma, Skira 1996.
Creatures from the mind of Santiago Calatrava. Con R. Harbison, Artemis, Zurich 1992
Engadina, architettura e ambiente. Desertina Verlag, Chur, Svizzera, 1985.
Il culto della donna nella tradizione indiana. Testi di Arturo Schwarz, Laterza, Bari 1983 .
L‘arte dell‘amore in India e Nepal. Testi Arturo Schwarz, Laterza, Bari 1980.

Sample Exhibitions
2006: X Biennale di Architettura di Venezia, Città, Architettura e società. 
2006: Triennale di Milano, “Good News”.
2004: IX Biennale di Architettura di Venezia “Notizie dall’interno”. 
2004: FNAC 2, Parigi, Dislocation, “Ingrandimenti da un interno”.
2002: Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbona “Architecture in Photography”.
2000: Portland, SK Josefberg Studio, USA “Architecture in Photography”. 
2000: Volume Gallery Londra, “Recent European Architecture”

Paolo Rosselli>/div>
If I have to think of what it is that binds these photographs together, what comes to mind is a curious word like ally; in other words there is an agent that a photographer must find at all costs before starting to look at reality. In this case the ally is the figure that looks out from the car, a doll, the figure of a manga woman who plays at one and the same time the role of spectator and actor in the city. To tell the truth this figure does not have a meaning or a connection with the landscape, and yet it attracts, amuses, takes the observer by the hand and in its own way shows him what is going on outside. Does photography look reality in the face? On the surface it would appear to do so, but then things turn out differently because anyone who looks at the confused and jumbled skyline of the city realizes that something else is needed to recount this reality, and that is a simulation; writers know that truth and fiction always go hand in hand and that to talk about reality it is necessary to invent a speaker and someone who runs the show. In the cities that I have photographed in recent years I have thought about the space and not the historical objects; I looked at details and decided that the most sensible thing was to carry out a sort of merger, to unite rather than to separate on the basis of a hierarchy. The photographic document has not vanished, it just has a more concise form that compresses everything into a single image in which almost everything is comprised, including people. Today people are the city; in this fluid, refracted space from which history has disappeared, people move around, taking upon themselves reflections, adverts, coloured lights.
Paolo Rosselli was introduced to photography at the age of 20 by Ugo Mulas. After the degree in Architecture he begins a series of long journeys in India with Arturo Schwarz. During these long stays he begins assembling photographic profiles of Indian cities. Since then, his approach to architecture through photography evolves in other directions, to contemporary architecture in Europe; towards masters of modern architecture as Giuseppe Terragni, and in the direction of the Renaissance architecture in Italy. Beside this activity, he has pursued specific researches on contemporary urban landscape and on the interiors of the home, seen as a place where people leave traces of their living. He was invited to the Venice Biennial in three editions, in 1993, 2004 and 2006. Recently, he has started to write on photography and about the changes in the perception of the real world after the introduction of the digital technique. In all, he is author of around twenty books. He lives and works in Milano.

Books
Scena mobile. Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012.
Sandwich Digitale. Quodlibet, Macerata, 2009.
Giuseppe Terragni Atlante. Con Attilio Terragni e Daniel Libeskind, Skira, Milano 2004.
Dislocation. Solea Fotografia, Milano 2002.
Architecture in Photography. Introd. Dennis Sharp, Skira, Milano 2001.
Das Italien Jacob Burckhardts. Testo di Ulrike Jehle, ArchitekturMuseum, Basel 1997.
Paolo Rosselli, Messaggi Personali. Testo di Alberto Crispo, CSAC Parma, Skira 1996.
Creatures from the mind of Santiago Calatrava. Con R. Harbison, Artemis, Zurich 1992.
Engadina, architettura e ambiente. Desertina Verlag, Chur, Svizzera, 1985.
Il culto della donna nella tradizione indiana. Testi di Arturo Schwarz, Laterza, Bari 1983 .
L‘arte dell‘amore in India e Nepal. Testi Arturo Schwarz, Laterza, Bari 1980.

Exhibitions
2006: X Biennale di Architettura di Venezia, Città, Architettura e società.
2006: Triennale di Milano, “Good News”.
2004: IX Biennale di Architettura di Venezia “Notizie dall’interno”.
2004: FNAC 2, Parigi, Dislocation, “Ingrandimenti da un interno”.
2002: Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbona “Architecture in Photography”.
2000: Portland, SK Josefberg Studio, USA “Architecture in Photography”.
2000: Volume Gallery Londra, “Recent European Architecture”
1997: ArchitekturMuseum, Basilea: “Das Italien Jacob Burckhardts”.