Varnish Photography

A rare unique panoramic format photograph of an iconic summer beach scene along the Mediterranean coast of Tuscany by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the summer rites and rituals of modern leisure. Published in March 2024 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his beach project, Massimo Vitali selected this never published work for a special 30th Anniversary panoramic edition: Viareggio Pano (1999) 42” x 93” / 106 x 236cm (framed) limited edition of 12 + 2AP signed, titled, dated certificate of authenticity original archival photography print with diasec (acrylic glass) face mount in light grey lacquered gallery frame Each original photograph is printed at the artist studio in Italy under artist supervision in strictly limited edition (12 + 2AP), signed/titled/dated upon final inspection and expertly framed at a renowned art framing facility in Germany specializing in large scale art photography works. Disclaimer of authenticity: although it is possible to acquire (smaller size) single page offset prints from the book "A Portfolio of Landscapes and Figures" (published by Steidl) in the secondary market, the artist studio strongly dissuades collectors from purchasing these single page prints outside of the context and authenticity of the complete portfolio. _____________________ About the artist Massimo Vitali was born in Como, Italy, in 1944. He studied photography at the London College of Printing, in the 1970s initially working as a photojournalist, but at the beginning of the 80s a growing mistrust in the belief, that photography had an absolute capacity to reproduce the subtleties of reality, led to a change in his career path. He worked in cinematography for film and television before beginning a fine art practice in 1995. Over the next two decades, Vitali’s large scale works would become recognizable for his highly detailed, epic scale panoramas, sociopolitical observations of the natural habitat of humankind at leisure. His iconic series of beach panoramas, captured from a distance with an elevated large format camera platform, began in the light of drastic political changes in Italy. Drawing inspiration from Renaissance and Old Flemish masters, in which the central space is fully exploited and the urban or natural landscape becomes the background, Vitali’s photographs grasp the viewer by capturing highly detailed observances of the recreational habitats of modern civilization. Vitali’s work has been collected in six monographs: Beach and Disco, Natural Habitats, Landscapes With Figures, Swimming Pools, Short Stories and the just released Entering A New World. Additionally, his work is represented in the world’s major museums, including the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Fond National Art Contemporaine in Paris, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Fondation Cartier in Paris and the Museo Luigi Pecci in Prato. Massimo Vitali lives and works in Lucca (Italy) and in Berlin (Germany). __________________________ SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2024 Photolux Festival - Il Bel Paese? Palazzo Ducale, Lucca, Italy 2023 La Grande Oasi - The way we live, now OCA, Oasy Contemporary Art - Pistoia 2023 Standing Still Cortona On The Move, Arezzo, Italy 2022 Massimo Vitali PhotoESPANA Biblioteca Central Cantabria, Santander 2022 Endless Summer Edwin Hook Gallery, New York 2022 Massimo Vitali: Leporello 2020 Melbourne 2022 Ti ho visto Mazzoleni Gallery, Turin 2021 PienoVuoto Forte di Belvedere, Florence 2021 No Country For Old Men Visionarea Art Space, Rome 2020 Human Constellations Museo Ettore Fico, Turin 2019 Massimo Vitali: Short Stories Mazzoleni, London 2018 Coastal Colonies Spiral, Tokyo 2017 ‘Disturbed Coastal Systems’ Benrubi Gallery...

large format beach photograph by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the rites and rituals of modern leisure Cala Conta...

large format photography diptych by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the rites and ritua...

ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Madeleine Gross is a Toronto-based artist who customizes her photographs with paint in a way designed to abstract landscapes but without completely abstracting rea...

Magical late afternoon golden light pours into the scene illuminating heads and Silhouetting figures. The intriguing arrangement of visual elements creates an unorthodox mysterious w...

Artist: Hall, Stev’nn Title: Distant Thunder No.1 Date: 2026 Medium: Photography, Oil, Ink and pastel with textured matte surface on birch panel Unframed Dimensions: 36" x 36" S...

The Atlantic Ocean stretching out from Dingle. In Irish folklore Brasil was believed to be a phantom island lost in mists that appeared once every seven years but could never be reac...

Forest at Night..., Twilight.. Cedar trees, English woodland... Cedars - A dense stand of western red cedar guard the path into the darkness beyond the lamplight. A gap in the foliag...

Artist: Hall, Stev’nn Title: Daydream No.1 Date: 2026 Medium: Photography, Oil, Ink and pastel with textured matte surface on birch panel Unframed Dimensions: 42" x 42" Signatur...

Side One Only Pink, from the Heidler & Heeps Tape Collection - The B Sides. The Heidler & Heeps collaborations are creative representations of Natasha Heidler and Richard Heeps’, per...

Stefanie Schneider's work was used for Marc Forster's movie 'Stay', featuring Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling. Naomi and Ryan were both portraying artists and Stefanie Schneider's art was the art both characters created during the movie. Stefanie's images were also used for Ryan Gosling's memory sequence, for the end titles, for edits in between and as paintings hanging in several scenes within the movie. East River View (Stay) - 2006 20x20cm, Edition of 10, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Archival C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label, artist Inventory No. 2598. Not mounted. Torsten Scheid, “Fotografie, Kunst, Kino. Revisited.”, FilmDienst 3/2006, page 11-13

 Photography Art Cinema. Revisited Stay expands a traditional connection through new facets interwoven between the media of photography and film is a veritable mesh-work of technical, motific, metaphorical and personal interrelationships. Extending from photo-film which, as in La Jetée by Chris Marker (France, 1962) is a montage of single, unmoving photographs all the way to the portrayal of photographic motifs in Hollywood cinema―most recently in Memento (USA, 2000) and One hour photo (USA, 2002)―is the range of filmic-photographic interactions on the one hand, and from the adaption of modes of cinematic production to the imitation of film stills on the other. For instance, with the legendary Untitled Film Stills (1978) of the American artist Cindy Sherman, who later made her debut as a film director with Office Killer (USA, 1997) and thereby, like many others, changed sides: Wim Wenders, Robert Frank and Larry Clark are doubtlessly the most successful of these photographic-filmic border crossers. This brief survey provides only a vague indication of the dimensions of this intermedial field, which in fact extends much further and is constantly being cultivated. Also as a motif in film, photography has experienced a historical transformation: Photographers were once considered to be technicians who mastered a craft but never achieved the status of artists. Photographer-figures were caught in the allure of beautiful appearance, incapable of penetrating to the actual essence of things. Such depth was reserved for literature or painting. When photography in film touched upon the sphere of art, then most often as its contrasting model, as the metaphor for a superficial access to the world. Coming to mind are Fred Astaire as a singing fashion photographer in Stanley Donen’s musical film Funny Face (USA, 1957), or the restless lifestyle-photographer in Michelangelo Antonioni’s genre-classic Blow up (GB, 1966). For the doubting Thomas, only that exists which can be photographed. He ultimately enters the world of fantasy and thereby the field of art only unwillingly, when he becomes entangled in the world of his images. The last of his detail-enlargements shows only the photographic grain and has lost all connection to reality. The photograph looks as if it had been painted by Bill, the painter who is both friend and antagonist to the protagonist.

 Photography as Art It was first around the end of the last century that numerous filmmakers discovered photography as a genuine art form. In The Bridges of Madison County (USA, 1995) a sensitive Clint Eastwood stands, camera in hand, on the threshold of artistic status, and in Smoke (USA, 1994) a tobacco merchant ripens into a philosopher through his involvement in photography. Finally, in John Water’s parody of the art market, Pecker (USA, 1998), a provincial tom-fool is hyped into celebrated stardom amid the New York art scene because of his blurred snapshots. This film about a postmodern Kaspar Hauser in photographic art (with clear parallels to Richard Billingham, the British shooting...

Noverre - Horse Landscape 2, 'Mane', 2003 C-type Hand Print, Mounted on Aluminium, Custom framed, Museum low glare, UV protective art glass 36.5 x 94 cm / 14.5 x 37 inches approx. Ed...