Massimo Pelagagge.
He began to photograph from a very young age, ranging in many fields, using black and white and color indifferently. In 2014 he received the honor Artist of Italian Photography. From these years of experience he feels the need to find a new means of expression and he finds it by returning to the dawn of photography, using the technique of pinhole photography.
He uses self-built machines to create a slow, meditated, long-term photograph that must be imagined before shooting, capable of capturing fragments of time in the making. In the development phase, with appropriate manipulations, he deliberately accentuates natural imperfections by creating dreamlike images where time appears suspended.
He has exhibited in fairs and galleries in Milan, Varese, Parma, Venice, Massa Marittima, Colorno, Gliwice, Siena.
SEE ALL ARTWORKS BY MASSIMO PELAGAGGE
Exhibitions:
Imperfect images
Personal Siena September 2022
Walls
Collective Massa Marittima - Palazzo Abbondanza August 2022
Valentine's Day Art 2022
Collective Terni Diocesan Museum and Chapter February 2022
Little Ancient Poetry
Personal Massa Marittima Art Gallery "Graphic Space" December 2021
Art Parma Fair 2021
Collective Parma Biancoscuro Art Exhibition October 2021
The Imperfect Horizon
Staff Massa Marittima Molinpresso Exhibition Center August 2021
Art Parma Fair 2020
Group show Parma Biancoscuro Art Exhibition October 2020
Pinhole images
Solo show Varese Galleria Shocases October 2020
Rossana Orlandi Award
Personal exhibition Milan Galleria Rossana Orlandi December 2019
MY LIFE ON HOLD - Photographic Eye
Group exhibition Venice Galleria Visioni Altre June 2019
Slow Photo 2019
Collective Massa Marittima - Complex Le Clarisse April 2019
MIA PHOTO FAIR 2019
Staff Milan March 2019
Slow Photo 2018
Collective Massa Marittima - Complex Le Clarisse May 2018
Imperfect Visions
Personal Massa Marittima Art Gallery "Graphic Space" November 2017
ColornoPhotolife
Collective Colorno November 2017
Offo VII Polish Festival of Pinhole Photography
Group exhibition Gliwice - (Poland) November 2017
The Invisible City
Collective Grosseto September 2017
Photographing 2017
Collective Massa Marittima - Palazzo Abbondanza August 2017
Slow Photo 2017
Staff Massa Marittima - Complex Le Clarisse May 2017
Slow Photo 2016
Collective Massa Marittima - Complex Le ClarisseApril 2016
Awards:
Winner ex aequo of the Rossana Orlandi Award, MIA Photofair 2019
Biancoscuro Art Contest 2019 winner
Collective winner Biancoscuro Art Contest Winter edition 2019
Collective winner Biancoscuro Art Contest 2020
Winner BACinstaedition May 2021
Collective winner Biancoscuro Art Contest 2021
Winner ex aequo Valentine's Day art 2022
Winner Cover Award Biancoscuro Art Contest 2022
Publications:
Art magazine article "la Toscana" September 2017
Interview in Fotocult magazine October 2017
Interview "The concreteness of the dream" Speech Photography Magazine June 2019
Art magazine article "Biancoscuro Magazine" n°42 October 2020
Publication Full internal page on the Art Magazine "Biancoscuro Magazine" No. 47 October 2021
Gigarte Auction Catalog n.19 Modern and Contemporary Art 8 September
2022 Author selected Auction House Gigarte Viareggio
Publication Mention Art Magazine "Biancoscuro Magazine" n°35 August/September 2019
Publication Mention Art Magazine "Biancoscuro Magazine" No. 43 January 2021
Publication Mention Art Magazine "Biancoscuro Magazine" n°48 October/November 2021
Publication Page over the cover (4th cover) on the Art Magazine "Biancoscuro Magazine" n°55 December 2022
Biancoscuro Catalog Art contest 2019
Biancoscuro catalog Art contest 2020
Biancoscuro catalog Art contest 2021
Biancoscuro catalog Art contest 2022
Valentine's Day art catalog 2022
Collective exhibitions catalog spread on site "Occupation" 2021
Collaborations:
Photographs for the exhibition catalogue
′′ Let me dream ′′ April 2022 Avellino By the painter Fabio Calvetti
Photographs for the catalog of the exhibition "Dear Messer Durante L'Alighiero"
May 2022 Monteriggioni By the painter Fabio Calvetti
Photographs for the exhibition catalog (in progress)
November 2022 Piombino By the painter Giorgio Giuggioli
Photographs for the exhibition catalog (in progress)
December 2022 Monteriggioni By the painter Alessandro Grazi
Massimo Pelagagge
Pinhole images in the name of a slow, meditated photograph, capable of welcoming fragments of a time in the making; in the name of an unpredictable photography, where control is difficult and you have to deal with mistakes trusting only in experience, in the ability to transform imperfections into new possibilities, patience into a virtue. A great patience: Massimo Pelagagge, using only a pinhole camera, creates single photos but also diptychs and triptychs that seem to dilate time even further, to open up to the infinite marine horizons of "his" Maremma and then wedge themselves between stony arches and powerful that refer to an almost archaic past. Evocative and mysterious, the images of him are similar to visions with half-closed eyes. They recall dreams where reality makes its hidden and elusive side glimmer, to invite us to take a better look and restore depth to the world.
Gigliola Foschi
SAN VALENTINO ART 2022
1st Classified ex Aequo
MASSIMO PELAGAGGE
For too long, the art system has considered photography as one of the secondary forms of expression compared to those historically considered the queens of the visual arts, painting and sculpture. If it is true that things have changed in recent years it is also true that too often this form of art continues to be read and treated as something separate and distinct from the others.
In the scenario offered by photography there is a planet of its own, that of those who do pinhole photography, which is characterized by an "other" thought in a world where modern means of communication offer anyone the possibility of producing images that millions they cross the length and breadth of the planet, breaking down physical, geographical and cultural borders.
Massimo Pelagagge has been developing for decades a research on light that is the daughter of a thought that leads him to confront the world that is given to us in ways and above all, times, different from those that engage most humans.
He hates easy solutions, good for everything and everyone, and therefore the wooden machines he works with he prefers to build his own. It is a strong thought and a kind of inner fire that accompany him throughout the entire creative process of each single image: from the construction of the best medium and from the definition of the measurements of the slit from which to let the light enter, to the exposure times that from the ten of seconds can arrive at the time, the processing and the different manipulations in development.
He has control and decision over every single step and leaves nothing to chance.
A kind of alien in a world that is homogenized and flattened on the production of images that after an instant are already old and superseded by millions of others. Thought against nothingness and uselessness. A thought that becomes light, without the need for intermediaries and mediations.
Frank Profiles
February 2019
Massimo Pelagagge, The imperfect horizon
Pinhole images in the name of a slow, meditated photograph, capable of welcoming fragments of a time in the making; in the name of an unpredictable photography, where control is difficult and you have to deal with mistakes trusting only in experience, in the ability to transform imperfections into new possibilities, patience into a virtue. A great patience: Massimo Pelagagge, using only a pinhole camera, creates single photos but also diptychs and triptychs that seem to dilate time even further, to open up to the infinite marine horizons of "his" Maremma and then wedge themselves between stony arches that refer to an almost archaic past. Placing himself close to the ground (that is, at the same level as the mighty slabs that form the pavement of the streets) the gaze seems to open a passage, a visual tunnel, reaching out towards a narrow luminous arch which, amidst large shadows, opens up to the horizon. As if, in the dark beyond, there were the possibility of a breath, or of a shining hole, or of a dazzling ray that looks at us and questions us from down there. These visual tunnels are always two-way: it is not simply a sort of binoculars or lighthouse, to extricate oneself from the shadows and aim further afield, perhaps framing an olive tree or a house. Conversely, they also create an opposite visual current: in fact, they seem to give life to a nebulous, elusive gaze that arises, that emerges from a distant elsewhere to stare, enigmatically, right at us. After all, that of being observed from another gaze is a recurring sensation in these images by Pelagagge: as if everything were played out starting from the blurry flash of eyes with which an indefinable mask emerges from the uncertain horizon of meaning to ask us what is the meaning of life. Evocative and mysterious, the images of him are similar to visions with half-closed eyes. They recall dreams where reality makes the hidden and elusive side of him glimmer, to invite us to take a better look and restore depth to the world.
MASSIMO PELAGAGGE
LITTLE ANCIENT POETRY
Galleria Spaziografico hosts an intense and highly poetic exhibition by a refined and experimental photographer: Massimo Pelagagge.
Massetano, president of the city's photo club, Pelagagge presents a precious collection with works resulting from pinhole photographic research, made with a camera of his own construction which he arrived at after thirty years of experience in this field.
Suspended in time and space, his images fix imaginative dimensions in which the only interpretation is intimate and poetic. Unique works, where research goes beyond the photographic medium, where the first impression on film becomes the starting point for the author's interventions. In the development phase, the artist transforms the photograph into a unique and recognizable work where defects are enhanced, in search of sensations and deep emotions to be transmitted to the observer.
An ancient technique in which the shutter speed expands and the precision of the composition becomes a fundamental canon for the success of every single shot, of every single part of the story that Pelagagge wants to tell.
After returning to the essentials with the pinhole camera, he undertook a new experiment, removing the camera itself: through skilful manipulation, light exposure and guided chemical reactions, Pelagagge creates images where the subject is sculpted directly by the light.
In the series called "Herbarium", which he offers in preview in this exhibition, he has given life to a study on the forms of the vegetable kingdom by proposing intense, recognizable and never banal images, where the observer finds himself immersed in a distinguishable, yet new.
We asked Massimo Pelagagge two questions to deepen his poetics:
How important is experimentation to you?
Experimentation is fundamental for me, my works are born from the need to get out of the homologation and multiplication of images. Today's viewer is overexposed to a multiplicity of beautiful and glossy images that also homogenize his taste. My research instead pushes me to create conceptual images, unique in their simple complexity.
Why did you choose to use the pinhole camera?
Although there are powerful cameras, with the use of a 'poor' photographic medium I intend to demonstrate that it is possible to create works of art thanks to wisdom and sensitivity. The work of art is not precluded to anyone and excellent photographs can be created with minimal and essential means, using subjects to be investigated in their spirit rather than in their beauty.
The spirit of the artist enclosed in a snapshot, in a small ancient poem.
Curated by Gian Paolo Bonesini and Carla Moscatelli
