Tom Leighton Photography

Wildwood beach lockers captured on a glorious spring blue sky day. Taken in 2013 this picture was first executed in Richard's darkroom in April 2020. Colour is key in Richard's work ...

An India sunrise over the foothills of the Himalayas. The lush landscape tickled by the sun, adorned by Tibetan Prayer Flags. This artwork is a l...

large format photography diptych by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, renowned for his grand scale topographical observations of the rites and rituals of modern leisure Santa Ces...

OK Corral - part 2 - (Stranger than Paradise), - 1999, 20x20 cm, Edition 5/10, digital C-Print based on the Polaroid, Artist Inventory 318_2.18, Not mounted. Stefanie Schneider's scintillating situations take place in the American West. Situated on the verge of an elusive super-reality, her photographic sequences provide the ambience for loosely woven story lines and a cast of phantasmic characters. Schneider works with the chemical mutations of expired Polaroid film stock. Chemical explosions of color spreading across the surfaces undermine the photograph's commitment to reality and induce her characters into trance-like dream scapes. Like flickering sequences of old road movies Schneider's images seem to evaporate before conclusions can be made - their ephemeral reality manifesting in subtle gestures and mysterious motives. Schneider's images refuse to succumb to reality, they keep alive the confusions of dream, desire, fact, and fiction. Stefanie Schneider received her MFA in Communication Design at the Folkwang Schule Essen, Germany. Her work has been shown at the Museum for Photography, Braunschweig, Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, the Institut für Neue Medien, Frankfurt, the Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Museum für Moderne Kunst Passau, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Foto -Triennale Esslingen. “It was Stefanie Schneider, who inspired me to start the company THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT after seeing her work, which seems to achieve the possible from the impossible, creating the finest of art out of the most basic of mediums and materials. Indeed, after that one day, I was so impressed with her photography that I realized Polaroid film could not be allowed to disappear. Being at the precise moment in time where the world was about to lose Polaroid, I seized the moment and have put all my efforts and passion into saving Polaroid film. For that, I thank Stefanie Schneider almost exclusively, who played a bigger role than anyone in saving this American symbol of photography.” –Florian Kaps, March 8th 2010 (“Doc” Dr. Florian Kaps, founder of “The Impossible Project”) Exhibitions Selected (selected) 2018 Participation Bombay Beach Biennale, Bombay Beach, USA (G) March Available to All, Rough Play Projects - Site Specific, Joshou Tree, USA (G) curated by Deborah Martin with Adam Berg, Doron Gazit, Kellan Barnebey, Chris Sanchez, Aili Schmelzt 2017 BLICKFELD Analoge Fotografie, Kommunale Galerie Steglitz-Zehlendorf (G) (catalog), (upcoming)
 Rosegallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica (G) Magie des Moments, Kunstverein Bad Homburg Artlantis, Bad Homburg (G) 2016 
Instantdreams, Instantdreams Gallery, Berlin 

(S) 2015
 Desert Voices, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Pamela Littky The Ballery in Heat, The Ballery, Berlin (G) 
Blue Nudes, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) 

 2014

 Summer Show, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (G) 6 Finalists, Saatchi Gallery London (G) 
Instantdreams, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (S)
Grand Opening, De Re Gallery, Los Angeles (G) with Banksy, Andy Warhol, Alison Bignon, Sophie Dickens, Victor Gingembre and others
 2013 
Heather's Dream, Short, nominated for the German Short Film Award 2013 (Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis)
Images For Images (Artists fir Tichy), GASK - Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region,  Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, (G) with Richard Prince, Nan Golding, Shirana Shahbazi, Sophie Calle, Martin Kippenberger, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Katharina Grosse, Jonathan Meese & others (catalog) 
The Girl behind the White Picket Fence, Galerie Catherine et André Hug, Paris, France (S)
 Heather's Dream, Short, German Competition Short Film Festival Oberhausen 
Multimedia Presentation with Artist Stefanie Schneider, Palms Springs Art Museum, Annenberg Theater
 The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY, (G) with Ansel Adams, Bruce Charlesworth...

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...

Leaving (Sidewinder) - 2005, 128x127cm, Edition 2/3. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist on Fuji Crystal Archive Paper, based on the Polaroid. Signature label and Certifi...

A gelatin silver estate print, 24" x 20" from the Freed archive, Rome, Italy, 2000 by Leonard Freed is a black and white contemporary photograph focused on an unexpected, poetic, and beautiful classical sculpture in the stairwell of a modest Roman dwelling. Leonard Freed discovered Little Italy in...

NASA Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard stands by the US flag on the moon with the shadow of Edgar D. Mitchell, module pilot, taking the picture. This is an 8" x 10" vintage chromogen...

NASA, Gemini 4 View of Earth, 1960s, A Vintage Color Photograph C-Print on Kodak Paper ... This is an 8" x 10" vintage chromogenic print on fiber paper, numbered in red type on recto...

Trinity Church, Wall Street, 1995 by Leonard Freed is a 14" x 11" black and white, gelatin silver, vintage print. The urban landscape photograph captures Freed's interest in New York City architecture, a city he loved, as well as reveals the photographer's masterful techniques in using light...

Claire Clarkson's "Vase of Flowers Green" After Jan Davidsz. de Heem is from a series of photographs exploring the replication of the cyanotype photographi...

'Azure' 2020 Amalfi coast, Italy Limited edition of 15. Printed on archival Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta paper. Signed both front and back with Certificate of Authenticity. Photog...