December 7, 2020 Issue

Johanna Fateman’s absorbing “Art: Luigi Ghirri,” in this week’s “Goings On About Town” introduced me to a photographer I’d never heard of before. She says,

In his signature faded color palette, Ghirri captured signage, murals, and ads layered onto the surfaces of a city; his frontal, symmetrical compositions often flatten three-dimensional space, an effect that might be described as trompe l’oeil in reverse. In the dreamy, sunlit factory scene “Ferrari Automobili,” from 1985-88, an upright, glossy-red car hood recedes on an assembly-line track—but the view is oddly cropped by a metal archway. Some of Ghirri’s works might be easily mistaken for photomontage. 

Maybe “found photomontage” might describe Ghirri’s style? Check out the fascinating online exhibition of his work at matthewmarks.com. My favorite is this luminous night shot, “San Maritino Vallo Caudino” (1990):