Massimo Vitali b.1944

Massimo Vitali b.1944

PICNIC ALLEE, 2006, chromogenic print, image size, 657 x 854 mm, sheet size, 695 x 895 mm, with the artist’s ink stamp on the reverse and numbered /120 (there were also 20 artist’s proofs), framed and glazed

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Best known for his large-format color photographs of beach scenes, Massimo Vitali has worked as a photojournalist, cinematographer, and fine arts photographer. Early in his career, Vitali developed mistrust in the capacity of documentary photography to reproduce the complexities of reality, which drew him away from photojournalism and instead towards a more conceptual practice. In his “Beach Series” (1995-), he photographed people on Italian beaches—shooting from podiums as high as five meters—as a commentary on the sinister elements, like “cosmetic fakery […] commodified leisure […] and rigid conformism,” behind scenes of supposed normality.