Luigi Ghirri, the world of things and the things of the world

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze the work of Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992), focusing especially on the ways in which he sought to make sense of the world and create new ways of looking at places and objects, discreetly obliterating the human figure. Ghirri was one of the most influential and well-known Italian photographers of the 20th century. Famous for his series exploring banal images of everyday Italian (and European) life, nondescript landscapes, and ordinary objects, Ghirri became known for his use of color, de-dramatization, and naturalistic triviality. His work is often associated with the American photographic tradition inaugurated in the 1960s by, among others, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore. To address some of the themes and approaches associated with Ghirri’s work, this paper is divided into two parts. The first examines the correspondences between Ghirri’s work and one of the earliest photographic books in history, The Pencil of Nature, by William Henry Fox Talbot, in search of intuitions present since the dawn of photography that persist in the Italian photographer’s gaze. The second and final section explores the crucial place that Italy — particularly the Emilia-Romagna region — occupies in Ghirri’s work, which can be seen as a landmark in reflections on modernity in the country.