(Scandiano, Jennuary the 5th of 1943 – Reggio nell’Emilia, February the 14th of 1992).
He began his career as a photographer in 1970, being his first fields of aesthetic research the conceptual arts, the natural landscape and the evidences of mankind action in it. In the beginning of eighties, thanks to Vittorio Savi invitation, Luigi Ghirri starts focusing his attention on the architecture in the scale of territory. Among his first commissioners there are Aldo Rossi, Paolo Zermani, and Savi himself. In the same period Ghirri starts a fruitful friendship with writer Gianni Celati.
Ghirri’s first landscapes express a metaphysic sense of suspense and unreality. In these pictures human figures are often absent, but the evidences of their action are always present and underlined. Pictures are usually developed in color, but never saturated, always soflty treated. This is also due to the delicate chromatic sensibility of his long time printer, Arrigo Ghi.
Among Ghirri’s production is of special remark the dedicated to Giorgio Morandi’s studio, located in the Via Fondazza (Fondazza street) of Boulogne.
Ghirri has been also the author of many LP cover concepts for the RCA Records. He’s behind the LP images of many famous artists such as Lucio Dalla, Gianni Morandi, Luca Carboni, CCCP Fedeli alla linea (Epica Etica Etnica Pathos), Stadio, Ciao Fellini, Robert & Cara and others.
Elisabetta Sgarbi has presented at Venice International Film Festival of 2009 a movie about Luigi Ghirri titled Deserto Rosa (Pink Desert).
www.archivioluigighirri.it