Paolo Rosselli, biography

Paolo Rosselli (Milan 1952) takes up photography at the age of eighteen. Learns printing techniques as an apprentice in the studio of Ugo Mulas in Milan. Enrols in the Faculty of Architecture of Milan Polytechnic; graduates in 1977. Accompanies art historian Arturo Schwarz on a series (1979 -1983) of extended stays in India, Bhutan, Sikkim and Nepal where he photographs temple architecture, sculpture and landscape; the results are published in two volumes, by Laterza. He begins assembling photographic profiles of Indian cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Chandigarh; Lotus International publishes a part of this work, in a monograph dedicated to the Indian subcontinent.
The aforementioned city profiles mark the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Lotus International. He does photo essays on contemporary architecture in Spain, Germany, France and other countries, which in turn generate other publications, including architectural monographs. Meets Santiago Calatrava and begins photographing C.’s bridges, sculptures, private and civic architectural projects. In 1984, initiates a study of the relation of architecture to environment in Engadin, Switzerland, photographing buildings, landscape and scenes of daily life. The study is published a year later along with two texts on the architecture of the region. An exhibition entitled “News from Engadin”, a selection of photographs, is held in 1987 at ArchitekturMuseum in Basel; another group of these same work is shown in 1992 at the BundnerkunstMuseum in Chur. His collaboration with Lotus International and other magazines like the architecture monthly Domus continues: he photographs new works by J. Navarro Baldeweg, M. de Sola Morales, R. Piano, Herzog & De Meuron, Jean Nouvel. He is invited to the XLV Venice Biennial (1993) to participate in the exhibition “Photography and Landscape After the Avangarde”, where he shows a group of works, which thematize the fragmentary messages, words and signs found in the contemporary urban landscape. A joint effort of the publisher Skira and the University of Parma results in the volume “Messaggi personali”, a collection of photographs which grew out of the Biennial show. In 1996 he publishes an extensive study on the architecture of the ‘50s and ‘60s in Milan, with a particular emphasis on the work of Luigi Moretti. A year later, publishes an exploration on Renaissance architecture in Italy in Rome, Florence, and Milan. The project is dedicated to the art historian Jacob Burckhardt. In London, at Volume Gallery (2000) he exhibits his work on contemporary architecture; participates to the collective exhibition at SKJ Josefberg Studio, in Portland, USA. Under the title “Architecture in Photography“ (Skira, Milan 2001) he publishes a collection of architectural photographs. In the occasion of his exhibition at Centro Cultural de Belem, he publishes the book “Dislocation”, a collection of photographs dedicated to the interior of the home. Around 50 photographs selected from this work are exhibited at FNAC Italy in 2003 and, later, abroad. In 2003 begins a work dedicated to Giuseppe Terragni, the Master of Italian Modern Architecture. The book, “Terragni Atlas” (Skira 2004), is published during the celebration of the centennial of Terragni’s birth, with a foreword by Daniel Libeskind and Attilio Terragni. He is invited to the 9° Architecture Biennial of Venice, in 2004. The 45 photographs exhibited at Padiglione Italia are a continuation of the project published in the book “Dislocation”, extended to the workspaces. In 2006, in the exhibition Good N.E.W.S. held at Milan Triennale, he shows a group of digital photographs that are the result of a combination of two shots. This work shows the potential of the digital. He participates in the X Venice Biennial with a group of digital photographs on Istanbul, Milano, London, Los Angeles, and Shanghai. In 2009 Quodlibet publishes “Sandwich digitale” a collection of texts about photography and digital technique; the photographs published in this book were taken in Europe, Asia, Africa. In all Paolo Rosselli is author of a dozen of books; he lives and works in Milano.

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