Paolo Gioli: Monograph Chronicles Experimental Photographer's Career

Historian Giacomo Daniele Fragapane has published a monograph titled "Paolo Gioli. Cronologie" with Johan & Levi, examining the artistic, photographic, and theoretical journey of Paolo Gioli, a unique figure in Italian photography. Gioli, born in 1942 in the province of Rovigo, still lives near his birthplace. The illustrated volume also covers his distinctive film production. Gioli is an intelligent experimenter whose work blends artistic techniques and scientific experiments, often using a pinhole camera in innovative ways. His relationship with critics has been difficult, with few exceptions like Ando Gilardi. Fragapane's portrait aligns with the artist's reputation as one of the first Italians of his generation to travel to the United States, an experience that shaped his methodology rather than his style. The book opens with a question about how to frame an artist who reinvents tools to address complex aesthetic, philosophical, historical, political, technological, and epistemological issues. Fragapane highlights the role of time in Gioli's research, noting that during his New York stay, Gioli met his patron, who has supported him for over fifty years. Gioli's subjects come from art history, photography, or his immediate surroundings, with extraordinary adventures occurring within his home, garden, nests, buttons, old plates, and books collected over years.