Over the course of more than fifty years, Luigi Ferrigno has observed and documented Venice, surpassing postcard stereotypes and revealing its uniqueness and multiple contradictions. His attentive gaze delves into the folds of daily life, lingering on the passage of time and the themes of a post-war Italy torn between the euphoria of freedom and the challenges of reconstruction. It is also a discreet approach that presents unexpected glimpses and never-obvious perspectives, fully placing Ferrigno within the tradition of what is termed ‘humanist photography.’
The exhibition Appunti fotografici. La Venezia di Luigi Ferrigno (lit. Photographic Notes. The Venice of Luigi Ferrigno), curated by Lorenza Bravetta at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, presents for the first time to the public a cohesive collection of the photographer’s work spanning the second half of the twentieth century and reaching into the new millennium. It is a delicate narrative composed of snapshots, like notes taken over a lifetime, offering a precious treasure chest for reinterpreting contemporary Venice. Here, his life unfolds — marriage, the birth of his daughter, forty years of work in glassmaking — interwoven with the activities of an amateur photographer. The exhibition is organized into three temporal and stylistic phases, reflected in three sections that begin and end with two landscapes, seemingly different and distant from each other. Luigi Ferrigno chooses the language of photography to tell a story, his own and that of a city, capturing the small and significant transformations that have marked it over the last half-century.
