Seravezza Fotografia – Upside Memories Roberto Cancogni

From  January 28 to April 9, Palazzo Mediceo in Seravezza hosts the ninth edition of “Seravezza Photography”, one of Italy’s most important photographic events, whose main exhibition this year is dedicated to Romano Cagnoni.
This year’s programme, like those in the past, is full of various events: besides the exhibitions, there will also be workshops, discussions, and photography courses.

The programme includes the following exhibitions:

Memorie sovvertite – Upside down memories by Romano Cagnoni
Femina rea by Enrico Genovesi | 28 January – 19 February
Sguardo incrociato: immagini di tragedie vicine e lontane da noi by Livio Senigalliesi | 21 February – 18 March
Qui, oggi  by Enzo Cei | 24 March – 9 April
Work is life by Gianni di Gaddo, Roberto Mari, Giuseppe Maiorana | 28 January – 9 April
Qualcosa di strano a Lampedusa by Francesco Vignozzi | 28 January – 9 April
Via Ponchielli by Stefano Morelli | 3 – 25 March

Memorie sovvertite – Upside down memories
The one-man exhibition of photographer Romano Cagnoni at Palazzo Mediceo in Seravezza includes a series of huge photographs of greatly altered elements of the Versilia area, the place where Cancogni was born and returned after many years in London.
These blow-ups of Cagnoni’s Versilia have the importance of contemporary art; they are photographs that recall the expressionist paintings.
Versilia is also the work-base from where Cagnoni left, along with his wife Patti, to photograph the  Chechen Fighters in 1995. These portraits were shot in a mobile studio using various flash and illuminated backgrounds, similar to a Hollywood studio. Many people find it hard to tell if they are looking at actors or real fighters, also because, what’s more, one bears a striking resemblance to Alain Delon.
A section of the exhibition is dedicated to North Vietnam. During this war Cagnoni was the first non-communist photographer to be admitted into communist North Vietnam. Relooking at these photographs taken back in 1965, Cagnoni was moved by the great humanity, grace and gentleness of a population that was suffering greatly from the heavy American bombing, that had fought a fierce war of liberation with the French and endured the Japanese invasion in World War II.
Romano, having survived the massacre of S. Anna in Stazzema was drawn to war photography. Cagnoni photographed many wars: in 1962 the War of Liberation against the Dutch in New Guinea, Vietnam in 1965, the Civil War of Biafra, the War of Attrition in Egypt in 1970; the Yom Kippur in Israel in 1973; then Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Falklands, Romania, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Kosovo.
A rather unexpected appointment for an Italian photographer was the photographic campaign for the Labour Party in Great Britain, when the Harold Wilson became Prime Minister.
Romano Cagnoni writes in the catalogue of the exhibition “Chiaroscuro”: the show’s title is intended to stress the essence of my work: the switching from happy to sad situations. I’ve always tried to look at the world also with an amused and amusing eye, almost to compensate for the many years spent documenting pain. If you don’t cry, you don’t laugh.