BIOGRAPHIES
DAVID LACHAPELLE
New York, USA
Land scape
Pinacoteca Nazionale
Via Belle Arti, 56 – Bologna
David LaChapelle (1963) is one of the most published American photographers of the last
twenty years. Since 2006 he has focused more on the artistic aspect of his photography. In
recent years, he has held a large number of international solo exhibitions, in particular at the
Barbican Museum in London (2002), the Palazzo Reale in Milan (2007), the Musée de la
Monnaie in Paris (2009), and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel (2010) where he was named
artist of the year for 2011. He has also been featured in retrospectives held in the Museum of
Contemporary Art Taipei (2010), the Hangaram Museum in Korea (2012), the Galerie
Rudolfinum in Prague (2011-12) and the Fotografiska Museet in Stockholm (2012). In 2013,
he took part in the Masculin-Masculin exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. His works are
included in major international collections like that of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the
National Portrait Gallery in London and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. David
LaChapelle is represented by Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris.
HONG HAO
Beijing, China
My Things, Bottom
Istituzione Bologna Musei
MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna
Via Don Minzoni, 14
Best-known for his print and photography works, Hong Hao (1965) graduated from the
Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 1989. The artist
currently lives and works in Beijing. Much of Hong Hao’s work features assembled scanned
images of various found objects including maps, books, tickets, receipts, banknotes, food, and
containers. In his 2009 solo exhibition Hong Hao: Bottom at Beijing Commune, the artist
exhibited a series that features the bottom half of everyday objects. By arranging the scanned
images according to their forms and colours, he destructs the functional property of the
materials and reproduces an undifferentiated, flattened, deliberately superficial world of
aesthetics. While Hong Hao continues to work with found objects, As It Is, his installation series,
deals with the physical forms in a more straightforward manner, creating an interesting dialectic
development of both the vocabulary and concept of his art. His recent drawing series
Reciprocating extends from Hong Hao’s previous concept of making art by scanning, develops
such procedures to break the traditional rules of production and technique and also passes the
boundaries of media. Removed from the functional and commercial aspects usually tied to an art
object, these drawings return to the meditation of pure aesthetics. Hong Hao is represented by
Pace Beijing Gallery.
EDWARD BURTYNSKY
Toronto, Canada
Manufactured Landscapes
Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande
Via Castiglione, 7
Bologna
Edward Burtynsky (1955) is one of Canada’s most respected photographers. His remarkable
photographs of industrialized landscapes are included in the collections of over sixty museums
around the world, including: The National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art and the
Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Tate Modern, London, National Gallery of Art and Library
of Congress, Washington DC, the Reina Sofía, Madrid, and the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art. Edward’s distinctions include the TED Prize, The Outreach Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles,
the Flying Elephant Fellowship and the Roloff Beny Book Award. In 2006 he was awarded the title
of Officer of the Order of Canada and is the recipient of six honorary doctorates. Edward
Burtynsky is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, Howard Greenberg Gallery and
Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery, New York.
O. WINSTON LINK
New York, USA
Norfolk And Western Railways
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna
Casa Saraceni
Via Farini, 15
O. Winston Link (1914-2001) was born in New York and is best known for his photographs
documenting the last days of steam locomotive railroads in the United States during the 1950s.
Trained as a civil engineer, Link spent five years capturing the trains and the towns along the
Virginia rail line when the Norfolk & Western Railway began to convert its operations from steam
to diesel. He made significant achievements in the use of night photography, often utilizing
elaborate flash equipment and staging techniques to create his extraordinary images. Discovered
by John Szarkowski of MoMA in the late 1970s and exhibited in several museums soon
thereafter, Link’s work finally received widespread attention with the publication of the book
Steam, Steel & Stars in 1987. O. Winston Link is represented by Robert Mann Gallery, New
York.
LUCA CAMPIGOTTO
Milan, Italy
The Poetry of the Giants
Spazio Carbonesi
Via de’ Carbonesi, 11 - Bologna
Luca Campigotto (1962) lives in New York and Milan. After taking a degree in modern history, he
specialized in photography of landscapes and architecture, linked to the theme of travel. He has
carried out research projects on Venice, Rome, Naples, London, New York, Chicago, Morocco,
Cambodia, Chile, India, Patagonia, Easter Island, Yemen, Iran, Lapland. His work is exhibited and
collected worldwide. His main publications are: Roma, FMR, Bologna 2015; Theatres of War,
Silvana, Milan 2014; Gotham City, Damiani, Bologna 2012; My Wild Places, Hatje Cantz,
Ostfildern 2010; The Stones of Cairo, Peliti Associati, Rome 2007; Venicexposed, Contrasto,
Rome / Thames&Hudson, London / La Martinière, Paris 2006; L’Arsenale di Venezia, Marsilio,
Venice 200; Molino Stucky, Marsilio, Venice 1998; Venetia Obscura, Peliti Associati, Rome /
Dewi Lewis, Stockport / Marval, Paris 1995.
PIERRE GONNORD
Madrid, Spain
(Other) Workers
Genus Bononiae
Santa Maria della Vita
Via Clavature, 8 – Bologna
A self-taught photographer, Pierre Gonnord (1963) has lived in Spain since 1988. In recent
years, he has developed a unique oeuvre and has turned his project into a way of life: constantly
travelling down by-roads in search of subjects who belong to social groups with a strong cultural
identity. He makes contact, lives and works with tribes, clans and people far outside of our urban
landscape in this era of globalization, people who for this reason are doomed to disappear.
Gonnord’s portraits appear in several collections, among which the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Chicago, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Maison
Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Saastamonien in Helsinki and the Centre National
des Arts Plastiques in Paris. He has been invited to participate in the Venice Biennale, Les
Rencontres d’Arles, and the photography festivals at Helsinki, Bratislava, and Beijing, among
others. Some highlights among his recent solo exhibitions include Témoins, Centre
Photographique d’Île-de-France (2010); Portraying the South, SCAD Museum, Atlanta, Usa
(2012); El sueño va sobre el tiempo, Centro de Arte Tomás y Valiente, Fuenlabrada, Madrid
(2013); Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía, Almería (2014), and Hasted Kraeutler in New York.
Gonnord’s most recent work is promoted by the University of Navarra in its Tender Puentes
[Creating Bridges] program and will be displayed at the new Museo Fundación Universidad de
Navarra in early 2016. Pierre Gonnord is represented by Galería Juana de Aizpuru, Madrid.
NEAL SLAVIN
New York, USA
Group Portraits
Spazio Carbonesi
Via de’ Carbonesi, 11 - Bologna
Neal Slavin (1941) is an American award winning photographer and film director. His well known
photographic books include Portugal with an afterword by Mary McCarthy (Lustrum Press/NY),
When Two or More Are Gathered Together (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/NY) and Britons (Andre
Deutsch/London & Aperture/NY). He has produced and directed countless TV commercials
through his own production company, Slavin-Schaffer Films. In addition Slavin’s feature films
include Focus written by Arthur Miller, which stars William H. Macy and Laura Dern. He has
photographed for most of the major magazines around the world. His work Britons has been
featured at New York’s International Centre of Photography (Icp) and England’s National
Museum of Photography, Film & Television, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and has been shown at
Les Rencontres d’Arles. His photographs are in major collections including of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Chase Manhattan Bank
Collection in New York, and the Deutsche Bank Collection in Germany, among others. Slavin has
won many awards including a Gold Lion in Cannes for advertising, a Silver Cube from the Art
Director’s Club of New York, five Addy Awards and a Mobius Award. The American Society of
Magazine Photographers (Asmp) named him Corporate Photographer of the Year. Slavin is
currently working on a book of new photographs entitled The Faith Project. Neal Slavin is
represented by the Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York.
GIANNI BERENGO GARDIN
Milan, Italy
Man, Work, Machine
Fondazione del Monte
Palazzo Paltroni
Via delle Donzelle, 2 - Bologna
Gianni Berengo Gardin (1930) lives and works in Milan. His archives include about one and a half
million photographs, mainly in black and white. They cover subjects ranging from human interest
photojournalism to environmental description, social investigation, industrial photography,
architecture and landscapes. He has dedicated much of his work to photography books and has
published more than 250 volumes. He has held about 300 solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad and
his works are included in international foundation and museum collections like the MoMA in New
York, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in
Paris. He has won numerous awards including the World Press Photo in 1963, the Leica Oskard
Barnack Award in 1995 and the Lucie Award for lifetime achievement in 2008. Gianni Berengo
Gardin is represented by the Agenzia Contrasto and the Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia.
KATHY RYAN
New York, USA
Office Romance
Istituzione Bologna Musei
Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica
Strada Maggiore, 34 - Bologna
Kathy Ryan, the renowned Director of Photography at «The New York Times Magazine», has been
a pioneer at combining fine art photography and photojournalism in the pages of the Magazine.
During this time, the Magazine has been recognized with numerous photography awards,
including National Magazine Awards in 2011 and 2012 and won two Emmy Awards for a series of
videos produced by its photo department. Ryan was the recipient of the Vision Award from The
Centre for Photography at Woodstock, she received the Royal Photographic Society’s annual
award for Outstanding Service to Photography and was honoured with a lifetime achievement
award from the Griffin Museum of Photography. Under Ryan’s leadership, the Magazine
regularly commissions the world’s best photographers, across an array of disciplines. The best of
this work can be seen in a book edited by Ryan, The New York Times Magazine Photographs,
published by Aperture. A travelling exhibition of photographs from the book, co-curated by Ryan
opened at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2011, then went to FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, to the
Palau Robert in Barcelona and at Aperture Gallery in New York. Ryan also lectures and serves on
many photo juries. In 2012 she gave the Karsh Lecture in Photography at the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston. She serves as a mentor at the School of Visual Arts. She co-curated the LOOK3
photography festival in Charlottesville and was a co-curator of the inaugural New York Photo
Festival. Ryan has also curated exhibitions for the Museum of the City of New York, FOAM
Museum, Cortona On The Move and New York’s School of Visual Arts. Ryan’s new book of her
Instagram photos, Office Romance, was published by Aperture in 2014.
JASON SANGIK NOH
Seoul, South Korea
Biography of Cancer
Istituzione Bologna Musei
Villa delle Rose
Via Saragozza, 228/230 - Bologna
Jason Sangik Noh (1964) is a surgeon and a photographer based in Seoul, South Korea. His
photographic work explores the tension of life and death from his working place, in the
community and the environment. As a doctor, Jason Sangik Noh is the Director, Department of
Surgery of the Veterans Health Service Medical Centre, the Director, Division of HBP Surgery,
Surgical Oncology and the Chairman, Comprehensive Organ Transplantation Centre in Seoul,
South Korea. Almost all of his projects are based on scientific materials, medical/surgical
records, laboratory results and patients’ own commissioned photographs. Working on the theme
of cancer, he also carries out some documentary projects. Noh took part in several group
exhibitions and had his first solo exhibition at Artbit Gallery, Seoul in 2008.
HEIN GORNY
Berlin, Germany
New Objectivity and Industry
Genus Bononiae
Museo della Storia di Bologna
Via Castiglione, 8
Hein Gorny (1904-67), member of the artistic intelligentsia (Kröpcke Circle) in Hannover,
became a professional photographer in the late 1920s. Starting with portrait photography he
developed his photographic competencies in many different fields such as publicity, fashion,
industry, animal and experimental photography. Between 1925 and the late 40s he worked
mainly in Hannover and Berlin and grew to one of the most successful and multitalented
photographers of his time alongside of Renger-Patzsch and Umbo, who both moved in his same
circle. His largely published but nevertheless forgotten oeuvre includes collaborations with avantgarde artist Kurt Schwitters besides numerous commissions for well-known companies
throughout Germany such as Pelikan (stationery), Bahlsen (biscuits), Blaupunkt (audio), Norta
(wallpaper), Feldmühle (papermills) and Rogo (stockings) – all counted among the international
market leaders in their segments. The oeuvre of Hein Gorny has been rediscovered and brought
to light since 2011. The Hein Gorny Estate is administrated by Marc Barbey and his Collection
Regard. Exhibition co-produced by Collection Regard and Foto/Industria 2015.
LÉON GIMPEL
Paris, France
Illuminations, Paris, 1925
Museo di Palazzo Poggi
SMA - Sistema Museale d’Ateneo
Via Zamboni, 33 - Bologna
Photo reporter who collaborated with the newspaper «L’illustration»; at the end of his career,
Léon Gimpel (1873-1948) donated several thousand photos and the admirable manuscript of
his memoires to the Société Française de Photographie. In 2008, with the Musée d’Orsay, the
association organised his first retrospective exhibition and later at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2014,
presented his famous series 1915, La guerre des gosses. He was a daring photographer,
inventive and full of humour, working on series or on commission: he is one of the great masters
of autochrome technique and during his lifetime was referred to as the “Maestro of illumination”.
An exhibition proposed by: La Société française de photographie.
2015 GD4PHOTOART COMPETITION FINALISTS
MAST.
Via Speranza, 42 - Bologna
Marc Roig Blesa (1981) lives and works in Amsterdam and Barcelona. He graduated from the
Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (the Netherlands, 2009) after obtaining a Master’s
Degree with Committee Praise at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles
(France, 2005). Between 2010 and 2013 Roig Blesa has been honoured with two young artist
development grants from the Mondriaan Fonds in The Netherlands. Roig Blesa’s work has been
presented internationally in art centres, museums and art galleries. In the last few years, his work
has focused on with «Werker Magazine», a publication about photography and labour. Marc Roig
Blesa points out: «Its starting point is the Worker Photography Movement, a group of
associations of amateur photographers that appeared in Germany in the 1920s, following the
steps of the first socialist photography experiences in the USSR which extended into the rest of
Europe, the United States, and Japan. Far from having a rhetorical approach to the work of
these photographers, Werker takes an interest in their working methodologies, based on selfrepresentation, self-publishing, image analysis, and collective learning processes. What forms
does work take in post-Fordist societies? What representations of work are being produced
today? Is it possible to activate collective practices of self-representation? To what end and for
which audiences? Each issue of the publication is produced and distributed in a different context
exploring strategies of interaction with specific audiences».
Over the past ten years, Raphaël Dallaporta (born 1980), who lives and works in Paris, has
taken a photographic path that has gained international attention thanks to precise perspective
and a single-minded approach. His long-term projects cover a wide range of human activities. He
works in close cooperation with military demining teams (in Antipersonnel), lawyers (in Esclavage
domestique), medical lawyers (in Fragile) or, most recently, archaeologists (in Ruins). His entire
oeuvre to date follows a single direction: it diminishes the documentary quality of photography in
favour of symbolic power. Since 2011 he has been very interested in human activities in space
and aims to question the relationship with progress and memory. He has concentrated on the
traces that the Symphonie project has left on Earth (e.g. reception antennae and satellite
dishes), breaking the images up into many parts and putting them together again to form a
complete picture. In doing so, Raphaël Dallaporta symbolises the fact that communication
between humans repeatedly breaks down.
Madhuban Mitra (1972) and Manas Bhattacharya (1977) are based in Kolkata, India, and
work together across a range of media including photography, video, animation and text.
Madhuban studied English Literature and holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Manas studied
cinematography after completing his M.A. in Comparative Literature. Their work has been shown
in the Thessaloniki Photobiennale, Greece; Singapore International Photography Festival; Lalit
Kala Akademi New Delhi and Chennai and Mumbai Art Room, India among others. The duo
received the Skoda Breakthrough Artist Award for the best debut solo show in India in 2011.
Regarding their work for the competition they state: «The ubiquity of photocopy (Xerox) shops is
a unique phenomenon in India. Housed in dingy, cramped rooms tucked away in alleys,
backstreets and squalid basements, life in these shops revolves in a loop around the whir of the
Xerox machine. Constituting a micro-economy within the informal sector, the photocopy centres
provide a livelihood to thousands of people. Operating outside legal parameters, dozens of books
in their entirety are photocopied in the span of a day in a single shop, making them an
indispensable, though invisible part of the knowledge industry».
Based in Madrid, Óscar Monzón (1981) founded the Blank Paper collective in 2003 and
developed different projects since then. In 2006 he received a grant from the Spanish Ministry
of Culture to conclude the project Las Puertas de París and in 2011 he was finalist in
PHotoEspaña´s Descubrimientos award. After five years of work, he completed the series Karma,
a work about the relationship between man and machine for which he received the First Book
Award of Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation in 2013. He says about his work: «The title is Maya
and it refers to the Sanskrit term which is translated as illusion or unreality. I had this idea: When
you look at something through a camera and then translate it into an image, spaces can become
scenarios and people or situations can be seen as performers or staged moments. Based on that
I started to work taking street pictures and trying to find the influence of advertising fictions on
reality. At the same time I took pictures directly from billboards and I put these together with the
“real” pictures to allow a dialogue (…) like a boomerang game».
SAVINA PALMIERI COLLECTION
Dall’album al libro fotografico
From albums to photobooks
Italian Industry in 120 volumes
MAST.
Via Speranza, 42 - Bologna
Savina Palmieri (1946) lives in Milan. She passed her degree in Biological Sciences in 1971 at
the University of Perugia, and taught in middle and high schools in Milan between 1971 and
2002. In 1984, she began to work in photography, collaborating with the IF-Immagine
Fotografica Gallery, organising signature art photography exhibitions, courses in photography,
and building a photographic library. Between 1990 and 2015, she participated in specialised
events such as Les Rencontres d’Arles, Sifest di Savignano, and Photo Show proposing out-ofprint and hard-to-find books for the diffusion of Italian signature art photography. In 2004, she
created Obiettivolibri, an on-line bookstore and bibliographic studio including a section
specialised in rare and discontinued photography books. In 2008, she began to compile a
collection of books, catalogues, and monographs on Italian industry to showcase the work of
photographers who had most efficiently collaborated with enterprises, using photography as an
instrument for documentary, historical, environmental, and aesthetic research. Following the
closure of the large production plants, she developed an interest in industrial archaeology, an
opportunity for a research project where space analysis and memory retrieval go hand in hand. In
2010 she produced a catalogue of 99 books, Industria italiana nell’immagine fotografica (Italian
industry in photographic images), including corporate books and volumes published to celebrate
the history and life story of Italian industries that were closing down or under transformation, to
document the great changes in the working world.