INTERVIEW: PAOLO ROSSELLI

Interviews conducted during the 4TH EDITION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SURFACE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE, CROSSING BORDERS SHIFTING BOUNDARIES. FAUP. September 2016

The interviews offer us a space for exploration and reflection about our time and the world of architecture and photography as document or art, and they constitute an exceptional and rich account of thirteen authors and their experiences and ideas. These authors have agreed to talk about themselves and their work.

read interview in Portuguese

Paolo Rosselli is one of the leading exponents of landscape photography in Italy since the early 1980s. His approach to architecture through photography brings a humanized and quotidian side normally not so deeply developed by the traditional approach to Architecture Photography. His photographic work and inquires cover architecture from the past towards contemporary architecture: from the Renaissance architecture in Italy towards masters of modern architecture as Giuseppe Terragni. 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 he exhibited groups of works on signs and messages found in the cities; in 2004 he showed an exploration on the interior of the home; lastly, in 2006, he showed a group of images of contemporary cities as Mexico, Shanghai, L.A., Istanbul, London. Recently, with the book Sandwich digital and Scena Mobile published in 2009 and In all, he is the author of around twenty books. Paolo Rosselli was a teacher of photography at the Milan Polytechnic for a brief period. He lives and works in Milano. His work offers us a richer and more profound understanding of architecture and space, by means of a vantage point and artistic strategy that results in critical images that allow a new perspective on architecture and the city.

At the round table session moderated by Inaki Bergera, Paolo Rosselli conference “Photography Keeps an Eye on the Photographer”, probes photography and architecture worlds. The author begins by explaining how architecture is the main territory of photography and how it is linked with memory and the past, referring Atget and the importance of the City as a live theatre for photography. Issues of identity and heritage are explored when talking about the city he lives in, which is Milano, and bringing to the discussion its architecture, more specifically Bramante. The topic of perception is discussed and Paolo refers that when we think of it as the main subject of photography it may become very intricate knowing how it is both linked to subjective and material world. Referring to early renaissance art, Piero della Francesca´s Flagellation in Urbino, the author deconstruct perspective, calling our attention for the need to take some liberties in relation to this pre-conceived grid of representation if we are to use photography as an instrument to explore and understand the realities of this world more deeply. Paolo finishes his conference by putting forward the idea that in photography and other artistic expressions the best things and images produced are the ones that are capable of reconstructing or subverting in some way the “(…) contract between its author and the real world (…)” that normally governs every form of artistic expression.

This interview reveals the interest of Paolo Rosselli for understanding in more depth architecture photography and the role of publications in the contemporary discourse within the universe of photography and architecture. The author emphasizes the significance of publishing on paper, referring that when that happens the author is making a statement. In fact, to publish in paper involves a lot of work and requires time to think and take decisions, which is different from publishing digitally in Internet.

This interview Clip was edited from the original interview conducted during the 4TH EDITION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SURFACE: PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE, CROSSING BORDERS SHIFTING BOUNDARIES FAUP September 2016

More info about the conference here: http://nasuperficie.ccre-online.com and in Scopio Editonspublications see also Sobre a superfície: Espaço público e imagens arquitetônicas em Debate

Coordination

Pedro Leão Neto (CCRE - CEAU – FAUP / scopio Editions)

Interviewer: Inaki Bergera

Video and Editing of original interview: ESMAD/P.Porto

Interview clip and online Edition in scopio Network: Jiôn Kiim (scopio Editions) Sandra Teixeira (scopio Editions)