Photojournalism and Reportage. From the Collection of Galleria Civica di Modena

Photojournalism and Reportage. Images from the Collection of Galleria Civica di Modena opened last Saturday, 22nd February 2013 in the exhibition spaces of Galleria Civica in Modena, Italy.

[Opening reception photo gallery below]

Curated by Silvia Ferrari, promoted and organized by Galleria Civica di Modena and Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, the show was produced entirely with materials from the Galleria Civica’s own collection – a broad selection of works from the Photography Collection, with a focus on photojournalism and reportage.

The exhibition is a chance to display a rich collection of testimonies from the first decades of 20th century till today, featuring many names that have made the history of international reportage photography, such as Weegee, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Werner Bischof, William Klein, Gianni Berengo Gardin, and Ferdinando Scianna.

The exhibited photographs (mostly black and white, with a few exceptions in color) portray iconic figures, depict historic events through the representation of common people and their condition, and try to bring attention to contemporary (then or now) issues and cultural exoticisms.

Some of the most recent photography works were recently acquired in the collection in order to be included in the show. These new perspectives allow Galleria Civica to render a more contemporary photojournalistic language – by artists such as Gianfranco Gorgoni, Melina Mulas and Aldo Soligno.

In the words of the organizers, «For the very first time, photographs illustrating a range of different historical moments will be on show together, with protagonists such as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Konrad Adenauer, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela, or ones which document key historical events: conflicts, journeys, social exploration and investigation, like the dramatic vicissitudes of Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, the Hungarian revolution of ’56, the massacre of the Watussi in Burundi in ’64, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Among the images documenting the social survey, we might mention a selection from the series entitled ‘Native Americans’ by Adam Clark Vroman, telling of the everyday lives of the indigenous population of the border zone between Mexico and the United States at the end of the 19th century; a number of shots by Gianni Berengo Gardin depicting the Gypsy community in Italy, and several portraits of Algerian women forced to have their photographs taken with faces uncovered for their identification documents in the ‘60s under French rule. The portrait of an old woman in the Philippines in 1976 bears the signature of none other than Gina Lollobrigida.»

The complete list of photographers featured in the show includes: Andrea Annessi Mecci, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Werner Bischof, Édouard Boubat, Romano Cagnoni, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mario De Biasi, Mauro Galligani, Marc Garanger, Caio Mario Garrubba, Paolo Gasparini, Tim N. Gidal, Gianfranco Gorgoni, Mark Greenberg, William Klein, Josef Koudelka, Alf Kumalo, Mimmo Jodice, Gina Lollobrigida, Giorgio Lotti, Mary Ellen Mark, Ramon Masats, Melina Mulas, Gregers Nielsen, John Phillips, Roger Pic, Sebastiao Salgado, August Sander, Daniel Schwartz, Ferdinando Scianna, Aldo Soligno, Adam Clark Vroman, Weegee.

Photojournalism and Reportage. Images from the Collection of Galleria Civica di Modena, curated by Silvia Ferrari, Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena through May 25, 2014

Exhibition views by Matilde Soligno
All images courtesy Galleria Civica di Modena