PHOTO BOOKS: KODACHROME BY LUIGI GHIRRI

"To photograph for me is like observing the world in an adolescent state, constantly renewing the sense of wonder."

Luigi Ghirri transformed the photographic interpretation of the Italian landscape. From Kodachrome onwards, a new phase began for Italian photography. It was a poetic revision in sharp contrast to the postcard-like views that were popular until then.

Luigi Ghirri was born in Scandiano, Emilia Romagna, on January 5, 1943, during World War II, in one of the greyer areas of Italy, the flat Po Valley. He started photographing in 1969 while continuing his work as a surveyor. His research focused on the ambiguity of the landscape, the natural and artificial images, and the imagery of consumption. In the 1970s, photography was not highly regarded in the Italian art and publishing world, so Ghirri founded his own publishing house, Punto e Virgola. Through 9 publications and collaborations with various authors, including Franco Fontana, in 1978, he published his first book, Kodachrome. This self-published color book became a masterpiece of Italian photography.

In the 1970s, the only photography considered art was black and white, influenced by French surrealism and the documentary reportage style of Magnum photographers. Italian photographic avant-gardes began to feel weighed down by old clichés, sparking a deeper, interdisciplinary debate. From architecture to music and conceptual art, many authors, many of them from Emilia Romagna, began to think about photography in a new way. Among them, besides Ghirri, were Olivo Barbieri, Franco Fontana, Guido Guidi, and others. Their manifesto would later be encapsulated in Viaggio in Italia, with an exhibition and catalog that would influence decades to come. But we will cover that in a future article—let’s return to today's book.

Published for the first time in 1978 by Punto e Virgola and reissued in a version almost identical to the original by Mack Photo Books at the end of 2022, with a soft cardboard cover Kodachrome features 104 pages and 92 photographs, selected by Ghirri from his archive between 1971 and 1977. The original version of the book includes two texts: a critical essay by Piero Berengo Gardin and a preface by Ghirri himself. The second edition, published by Mack, also includes an essay by Francesco Zanot.

Kodachrome is a collection of deliberately unfinished projects. A series of photographs that seemingly have nothing in common. Almost obvious views, where exclusion plays a major role. The frame becomes a threshold, a balance point between the world of the photo and the outside, allowing the viewer to imagine an entire scene. A transition, a fluid zone.

Ghirri himself explains the origin of his poetic approach: since he was a child, he was drawn to two particular books, the atlas and the family album. The dualism of going and staying, inside and outside, thus became the core of his photographic research.

Throughout his career, Ghirri favoured color, using it with grace and delicacy, combined with compositions that were strict but never predictable.

Visible and invisible are the opposing characteristics that Kodachrome seeks to unite, without relying on the rhetoric of metaphor. It makes the invisible visible by telling the story of a void through an essential journey. The relationship between reality and imagination meets in the surreal, often photographing two-dimensional images overlaid on the three-dimensionality of reality, opening a door to the unconscious.

The rhythm of the book is tight, with constant references to shapes and colors in an apparently disjointed narrative. Finally, Italian photography leaves behind the documentary prose and dives into poetry. In this book, the author gives the viewer the privilege of imagination, the search for detail that leads to a personal, diverse, and changeable story. The interpretation of meaning becomes a personal, immersive reflection. In his non-judgmental photos, we find the lightness of clichés elevated to the visual poetry of a new, freer, and more idealised form.

Kodachrome is a reflection on the act of observing. A photograph is not a representation of reality, but proof of a gaze.

After Kodachrome, Ghirri dedicated himself to various projects, collaborating with musicians like Lucio Dalla and the CCCP. He also worked with writers and architects, including the famous Aldo Rossi. The Italian photographer who most revolutionised the concept of photography in the late 20th century passed away in 1992 at the age of 49 due to a heart attack.

It’s interesting to note that Kodachrome was republished for the second time by a non-Italian publisher, Mack, in a version nearly identical to the original, with the only additions being a brief essay by Francesco Zanot and translations of the original texts in English, French, and German.

This is just the beginning of a new series of articles. We spend hours, days, focusing on the technique behind a language designed for communication. In a world where technology moves faster than we do, I find it essential to retreat into thought and reflection. We are here to convey messages, not count pixels!

Here you can find the video about Kodachrome on my YouTube channel:

Here is the link to buy the book on the publisher's website: MackPhotobooks.com/kodachrome