In a barn on a secluded mountain he creates a world of his own, built from cardboard and poster ink, giving new life to found objects.
Paolo Ventura gave up a successful career as a fashion photographer because he only had to photograph the images that haunted him.
Images that the artist had dreamed of as a child when his grandmother told him about her adventures during the war.
In a barn atop a secluded mountain, he creates a timeless, melancholic world that reflects the isolation he grew up in. But is it a dream world or a nightmare?
Ventura conquered the international art scene with the photographic series “War Souvenir” and “Winter Stories”.
His works are part of the collections of renowned museums in Italy, France and the United States.
The New Yorker described his work as “resonant and prescient, his images of fog-shrouded streets and canals are compelling fictions,” and ARTnews wrote:
The artist is a kind of master of illusionism, a photographer who creates elaborate stories with the simplest materials.
The result is mysterious and at times surreal, a hybrid between the sharpness of reality and the strange logic of dreams.”
In the documentary “Paolo Ventura – Vanishing Man,” director and cameraman Erik van Empel creates an intricate portrait of this fascinating artist and dissects the themes of Ventura’s photographic work.
