Dark light

Italian theater played a key role as influence of the Portuguese theater from the 18th century on. Such influence was utterly important in the formation of modern Portuguese theater and the experience of some of the most influencial Portuguese playwrights, actors and directors, such as Luiz Francisco Rebelo, José Oliveira Barata, Jorge Silva Melo or Luís Miguel Cintra near cutting edge theatre companies like Giorgio Strehler's Piccolo Teatro di Milano shaped late Portuguese theatre.

Photographers with very different styles and sensibilities, such as Pasqualis Di Antonis, Ugo Mulas, Luigi Ciminaghi and others where attracted by the new theatrical experiences and tried to develop their own photographic languages accordingly.

Pasquale De Antonis (1908-2001) collaborated with Luchino Visconti for more than a decade, from 1946 to 1960, contributing to the recording and memory of his shows, with a modern language strongly marked by cinematic neorealism

In Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, Ugo Mulas’ scene photography, inspired by Bertold Brecht's "Modelbuch", assumed a central function, coherently integrated in the process of production and communication of Brecht's theatre directed by Giorgio Strehler.

Ugo Mulas documented Brecht’s Threepenny opera as a "photographic chronicle", capturing each scene, creating small sequences, alternating perspectives and sets. To accentuate the grotesque and caricatural dimension he manipulated the images in the darkroom, distorting the actors' faces and expressions.

Luigi Ciminaghi followed Ugo Mulas as Milan’s Piccolo Teatro photographer, and he deeply participated in the whole process of staging. Ciminaghi's virtuosity translated the dense emotional atmosphere of Strehler’s scene direction into his photographs.

In his creative photographic process Luigi Ciminaghi used deliberately blurry, overexposed and granulated photographs with an intense darkroom work.

With previous experience as a photojournalist, Tony D'Urso joined the Danish group Ódin Teatret and Eugenio Barba in 1973 documenting their vanguard theatrical experiences through rural Italian villages.

Tony D'Urso documented the engagement of Odin Teatret in new forms of theatrical and cultural association during research residences on remote italian communities, in a modality of cultural exchange called "baratto culturale".

Since the 1970s, Vasco Ascolini had been documenting performances at the Reggio Emilia’s Municipal Theater "Romolo Valli".

Ascolini developed a personal photographic language of great freedom using “low key” technique to render details of bodies, gestures and expressions.

Silvia Lelli and Roberto Masotti were the official photographers of the Milan's Teatro alla Scala since 1979. Lelli excels in opera and dance photography, Masotti in contemporary music and jazz photography.

Lelli and Masotti also photographed theatrical spaces in the series Suoni, Spazi, Silenzi that expresses their daily relationship with the theater.

After working for New York’s On Stage magazine until 1986, Massimo Agus settled in Florence and started a regular collaboration with some theater and dance companies and with various festivals in Tuscany.

In his images, Agus seeks a clear and incisive photographic style capable of representing in a single image the synthesis of the performance experience.

Marco Caselli Nirmal embraced stage photography following his discovery of Judith Malina and Julian Beck's Living Theater.

Since 1980, Nirmal has developed a long collaboration with the ethnomusicologist Paolo Natali and with Ferrara's Teatro Comunale. He explored the mastery of color to capture performative moments, particularly in dance.

Anna Campanini chose theater as a space for her expression and explores creatively the scene's obscurity and contrast.

Tiziano Ghidorsi's individual research lies on using low key technique to capture the expressiveness of gestures and bodies.

Laura Arlotti has been collaborating with groups such as Città di Ebla, Gruppo Nanou, or Muta Imago, in a reciprocal recognition game that crosses and confuses the boundaries between theater and photography.

Guido Mencari finds in the visionary and cruel aesthetics Romeo Castellucci's Societas Raffaello Sanzio of the most suitable subject for his strong emotional impact imaginary.

The photobook Pharmakos resulted from a four years colaboration between Gianluca Camporesi and the Città di Ebla's theater company that performed exclusively for this project.