Estimate
€ 3.000 - 4.000
Aggiudicato
Current bid Starting bid
€ 2.400
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At auction on Wednesday 18 June 2025 at 16:00
Information
Vintage gelatin silver print, printed in 1970s
cm 30 x 40 | 11.8 x 15.7 in.
Signed in black ink on the image and titled in black ink on the verso
Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto (I have no hands to caress my face) is the best known and most appreciated work because it contains, in the blinding white of the snow on which the black of the seminarians' tunics stands out, the most evident characteristics of Giacomelli's style. However, it is necessary to study this image well because the contrast is more metaphorical than aesthetic, comparing the happiness of the protagonists and the emotional loneliness that awaits them. It should also be remembered that here the true soul of the photographer from Senigallia is revealed: he is a refined interpreter of poetry, in this case of the homonymous lyrics by David Maria Turoldo. Absolutely fascinating Scanno (the only Italian photograph in the 1964 exhibition ‘The Photographers Eye’ at MoMA) is a true exercise in compositional style: the two women in the foreground crossing the space diagonally are contrasted, in a brilliant perspective shift, by the figure of the child advancing frontally towards the lens.
cm 30 x 40 | 11.8 x 15.7 in.
Signed in black ink on the image and titled in black ink on the verso
Literature
A. Crawford (edited by), Mario Giacomelli, Phaidon, London, 2001, p. 169J. Szarkowski (edited by), Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1973, p. 185
Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, Ancona 1925-2000), fatherless at a very young age, worked as an assistant in the print shop that he bought after the war. In 1953 he took his first photograph with a simple Bencini Comet, immediately realising that he could express himself through photography. The support and guidance of Giuseppe Cavalli, Paolo Monti, Luigi Crocenzi and Giuseppe Turroni made him known as a breath of fresh air thanks to a style based on the contrasts of his black and white and a sensibility that led him to an expressionist vision of the landscape and a very intense way of interpreting the lyrics of great poets such as Leopardi, Cardarelli, Turoldo and Lee Masters. He has had many exhibitions all over the world and produced many books.Io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto (I have no hands to caress my face) is the best known and most appreciated work because it contains, in the blinding white of the snow on which the black of the seminarians' tunics stands out, the most evident characteristics of Giacomelli's style. However, it is necessary to study this image well because the contrast is more metaphorical than aesthetic, comparing the happiness of the protagonists and the emotional loneliness that awaits them. It should also be remembered that here the true soul of the photographer from Senigallia is revealed: he is a refined interpreter of poetry, in this case of the homonymous lyrics by David Maria Turoldo. Absolutely fascinating Scanno (the only Italian photograph in the 1964 exhibition ‘The Photographers Eye’ at MoMA) is a true exercise in compositional style: the two women in the foreground crossing the space diagonally are contrasted, in a brilliant perspective shift, by the figure of the child advancing frontally towards the lens.
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Condition report
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