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This book of photographs by Ferdinando Fasolo is the first in a series by members of a photographic group called Mignon. I made the acquaintance of the Mignon photographers about five years ago during a visit to Padua in connection with an exhibition of my own work. Along with the exhibition, a book of my photographs published by Editore Motta had impelled these young photographers to seek me out and initiate a relationship. The unusual fact that they all preferred black and white to color, and that they worked as a group intrigued me and I have continued to be in touch with them since that meeting, both in Padua and during their visits to New York. It has been my pleasure to have discovered through this friendship the wonderful warmth of the Italian character as well as the ardent desire on the part of these young men to make their photographs sing.
From my discussions with the Mignon photographers, I discovered that the concept of photography as an expressive art form hardly existed in their particular corner of Italy. Education in the medium was directed toward its applications in the commercial and photojournalistic spheres. When its history was taught, it was in the university. Opportunities to see the full range of photographic expression - historical and contemporary - are limited, as museums ordinarily do not show photographs and few galleries are completely devoted to the medium. The auction scene, which in the United States creates interest in photography several times a year, is very quiet, and collectors of photographic images do not seek publicity.
I was especially interested in Mignon because of my past connection with the Photo League. This group, which existed in New York City between 1936 and 1952, was devoted to the honest portrayal of people in working class neighborhoods. At its peak, its several hundred members had initiated discussions of photography’Äôs purpose, its aesthetics, and had cooperated in mounting exhibitions; it seemed to me that Mignon had similar ideas. I soon discovered that indeed they did, and our discussions turned to how they could best achieve their cooperative aims while retaining their own individual ways of seeing the world around them.
Over the course of several years, as I have gotten to know the photographers better, each has become a more distinct personality. They have become more aware of each other’Äôs individuality, no longer all printing in the same manner on the same kind of photographic papers. One can see a steady movement in this direction in the exhibitions they have mounted in and around Padua and the several books they have produced. One, Fotografie Mignon, published in 1999 is a collection of images by all the members; another, New York People, contains the work of five members who have visited New York recently. At the same time, they have not given up the cooperative spirit that brought them together in the first place and they meet frequently to discuss problems, mount exhibitions, exchange books.
Which brings me to Ferdinando Fasolo, the first of the group to be featured in a monographic work. Many photographers approach their medium by starting with its simpler aspects and then becoming more attuned to its greater technological challenges, but Fasolo took the opposite direction. A graduate of a technical school and a postal worker by trade, he had long felt the need to engage with some creative act. Attracted by comic strips and cartoons, he nevertheless was unable to draw and eventually acquired a camera, concentrating mainly on color work and landscapes. At the same time he undertook a more technically complex activity involving multivision productions. This enterprise involved the projection of color slides taken on various trips away from Padua along with music chosen for the occasion. For reasons unknown, after ten years this activity became less absorbing and he lost his sense of focus. Through his friendship with those in Mignon, Fasolo turned back to black and white photography and after joining the group, he started shooting in the street. Perhaps it was as a way to engage more directly with society.
Fasolo is interested in the public street, but that says little about what he sees transpiring there. His eye is on the fortuitous - the strange inexplicable coincidences that occur all the time but are not registered by most of us. As he makes his way among the structures and signage of the urban environment, he is especially sensitive to the accidental contrasts that exist for a nanosecond and then disappear. These moments might involve the similarities of a turn of a woman’Äôs head to that of a painted image, as in the cover photograph. His eye might catch a contrast between the facial expressions of actual people or between the body language of real people and that of printed representations on advertising posters. In one image, three bundled up male figures with obvious head colds seem to be gazing at a poster of three scantily dressed women.
At first glance, these contrasts may seem obvious or merely amusing, but the photographer has endowed them with a layer of feeling that lifts them above the superficial. Fasolo also likes young lovers, whom he captures in all kinds of circumstances - hidden by an umbrella, bundled up on a park bench, seated beneath the benign gaze of a medieval stone statue. These images are neither portentous nor salacious, but seem at first glance witty and light-hearted, as does much of this work. On further inspection, however, one becomes aware of an undercurrent of serious affection and feeling - perhaps even yearning.
Fasolo has an uncanny feel for spatial geometry and is attracted by strange juxtapositions in space, as we see in an image with three sets of two figures each; two are female couples walking to either side of a poster with a pair of truncated male heads. From his simplest to his most complex compositions the arrangement of the structural elements endows his images with visual integrity, while the way the light illuminates the scene reinforces the emotional character. In today’Äôs harsh world of discord and war, it is rare to find someone who seeks to affirm life and who is able to accomplish this resolution of means and feeling with such artistry.