Private looks. Photographs by Francesco Maria Colombo

Sixty portraits, between black and white and color. Between empty and full. Between silence and gasps. There are Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Margherita Hack, Dario Fo, Irene Cao. Maybe they are just the people who gave more. And to be a character is a must that there should be the goal of a camera to look at and a special eye looking through the viewfinder, to Francesco Maria Colombo.
You find yourself looking at these portraits to remain in deep fascinated.
For Francesco Maria Colombo, photograph is almost read minds, so strong is the ability to capture the intimacy of the subjects represented.
In fact, when empathy between the author and his subject is manifested in photography, it acquires greater expressiveness and its impact on the looks outside results in an invitation to imagine and think about the reasons of the shot.
Observe the photographs of Francesco Maria Colombo brings us to this. Each His portrait appears as a gesture meditated which corresponds to a moment of inattention of the subject, which has left portray almost by mistake. And inside that mistake, in the collapse of the subject, you can seize the focus of the image. Their appearance almost dramatic, certainly unique and distinctive. Image after image, disappear all doubts (and the smiles you are rare) and it is possible to detect a twofold project level by those who took these photographs.
The first has to do with the poses secretive and confidential information of those who are in this gallery of portraits express themselves in the places to which they belong. The second, however, is tied to a thin and constant search for the ideal photo by the author.
In light of these reading levels, each corresponding to the point of view of the photographer and the subject, images of Francesco Maria Colombo seem to reveal the final act of a search that follows, and stana explores his subject until she chooses to open up the lens of the camera. In this sense, each portrait of the sequence seems to reveal a secret. Every mouth is about to say something. And often we wonder: but what there was between those two.
The photographs by Francesco Maria Colombo appear as the result of a process of knowledge that explores the cultural universe, science and research through the art of portraiture. The subjects are treated in the framework of a unified world so attractive as to arouse interest in every point, face or environment. They are actors, philosophers, musicians, writers and scientists, all caught in its own context, free to choose the environments and attributes of their representation. For them, the scene is repeated each time with a different input, although always dictated by the intention of the author to fully understand the subject pre-chosen. Then even the characters more shy and reticent camera lens indulge in the latter, and are expressed in the poses the most authentic. In those moments, rare and fleeting, the road through which the photographer can realize his dream slowly begins to take shape. From then on it will be easier for him to reach that ideal of representation that preserves the bottom of the eye and the heart.

Vai alla guida d'arte di Venice