Book Review: Colazione sull'Erba
Luigi Ghirri. Image from Colazione sull’Erba (MACK, 2019). Courtesy the estate of the artist and MACK.
What do we make out of familiar things? Luigi Ghirri studies familiarity in Colazione sull’erba (Breakfast on the Grass), exploring nature and its ability to blend in man made environments. Colazione sull’erba is a collection of photographs imbued with soft and sophisticated qualities, that don’t necessarily raise existential questions, but rather provide us with a moment of silence and breathing. They allow us to linger on the natural beauty of these objects, and act as visual cues to the specific social and cultural context of suburban Modena, Italy.
Throughout his career, Luigi Ghirri focused on making images that were part of a series that examine a particular idea or subject, interested in what images can do in conversation with each other. Looking at these photographs of Italian landscapes and small gardens, we are confronted with a nature that obeys its own laws, but also that molds to people’s aesthetic interventions and that meets the geometrical precision of Luigi Ghirri’s vision.
Luigi Ghirri. Image from Colazione sull’Erba (MACK, 2019). Courtesy the estate of the artist and MACK.
Luigi Ghirri. Image from Colazione sull’Erba (MACK, 2019). Courtesy the estate of the artist and MACK.
He once practiced as a surveyor, and the geometry that this job involves clearly influenced his artistic vision. The calculated compositional perfection in his photographs is striking, making the subject of plants, a very serious on; one that has the power to create the narrative of a place. Intentionally framed and photographed straight on, his focus is solely on the plants, removing them from their larger frame or context. Strangely, because of this strong focus, I am left seeing the object in a more abstract form, integrated in its colorful, sometimes graphic, textured background. It encourages us to focus on the patterns and forms and explore the possibilities that they might bring.
This book is attractive in its simplicity, leaning towards obsessive characteristics, and framing a certain Italian ideological aspect of living. Luigi Ghirri knew how to translate the feeling of the homely and aesthetic landscapes of Italy and succeeded in passing on a relaxed feeling through delicate and poetic colors.
Luigi Ghirri. Image from Colazione sull’Erba (MACK, 2019). Courtesy the estate of the artist and MACK.
Luigi Ghirri. Image from Colazione sull’Erba (MACK, 2019). Courtesy the estate of the artist and MACK.
