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Fabrizio La TorreVerticalità, New York, 1955 - Contemporary Black & White Photography1955
1955
About the Item
Artwork sold in perfect condition
During the 15 years during which he gave himself to photography, Fabrizio La Torre traveled to Italy, Europe, North America and Asia. From everywhere he brought back photos that tell of the human, universal and soul-filled condition, to which he was so sensitive. Here is First Look at Canada, where Fabrizio La Torre stayed in November and December 1955, on a 6-month trip to North America which also took him to Canada and California. In Montreal, he could not resist the urge to travel aboard the "Canadian", the most modern and luxurious version of the Canadian Pacific train, inaugurated a few months earlier, on April 24, 1955. And even if the official story of this company claims that as from this inauguration the train was pulled by modern diesel locomotives, the heavy steam engines are still used, to the delight of the photographer who knows how to play with their big white plumes. In stations, on platforms, steam is everywhere; while the temperature is around - 30°C, steam is welcome to thaw the axles, often blocked by ice.
3 - “Verticalità”, verticality, New York, December 1955.
Small female silhouettes on a corner at the junction of two streets in Lower Manhattan, made to seem insignificant by the stone canyons of the city. Fabrizio was always pursuing the same contrast, whether in Rome or New York: human beings dwarfed, almost crushed by their outsize creations, by their religious monuments, by the symbols of their power. Except that here, for this building in the foreground, the architect, a little boy who never grew up, has sought inspiration in the building games of his childhood using multi-coloured bricks.
- Creator:Fabrizio La Torre (1921 - 2014, Italian)
- Creation Year:1955
- Dimensions:Height: 23.63 in (60 cm)Width: 16.54 in (42 cm)Depth: 0.12 in (3 mm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Brussels, BE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU157028212552
Fabrizio La Torre, who was born in Rome (Italy) on 11 January 1921 and died in Brussels (Belgium) on 27 August 2014, he was an Italian photographer active for a 15 year period in the 1950s–1960s and whose neorealistic and intimistic works are typical of cinema and photography of that time in Italy. La Torre said that “his parents gave him his first camera, a Bakelite body with non-adjustable lens and focus which produced rather strange half format 18x24 millimeter negatives. It was with it that he took his first photos.” Since then, he tried to take pictures at any occasion especially during the different trips he made during his life, “trying to capture the daily life” of the people he encountered.
La Torre justified his "frenzy of travel" as a pretext to flee from the paternal model and the resumption of management of a family estate.
Since the early 1950s and until the late 1960s, La Torre produced less than 10 thousand photos worldwide. After this period, he gave up photography, gave away or sold his cameras, closed his archives and put them away in boxes where they would remain out of sight for 40 years.
In 2009 he agreed to re-open his archives for examination and study and allowed the restoration of a number of negatives. Gradually a first exhibition was prepared, focussing on Rome in the 1950s and ‘60s, “La Vera vita”. By this time he was 90 years old and in failing health. He realised that this was not a time to hold back and decided to cooperate fully in the restoration of his works. He moved to Brussels, in order to benefit from the availability of the technicians and experts which he would need.
In 2014, La Torre worked every day on preparations for his Retrospective in Monaco. He realised that this was his last chance to display his works as he thought best. Two weeks before the official inauguration, he died. His ashes would be placed in the little cemetery of Cap d’Ail next door to Monaco where his parents and his sister were already at rest.
La Torre never tried to only show the beautiful for fear of "making postcard". For him, "there is only the introduction of the human element that protects from looking like a postcard. This is why my naked landscapes are so rare."
Far from the paparazzi, La Torre developed his own style, working alone, ignoring the surprise and amused comments of Roman photographers obsessed with the Via Veneto and its starlets. They did have in common the laboratory to which they took their films, that of the Nannini Brothers in the city centre, two experts in high contrast images and probably the inventors of the concept of "stolen photos", out of focus and slightly grainy to give the impression of privacy revealed.
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