Francesco NeriTrophy and Treasure

Born in 1982 in Faenza in northern Italy, Francesco Neri opens a personal family album, a treasure chest filled with pictures that reflect life, its quiet and special, indeed magical moments and the changing of the generations, as much as the photographer’s questions to his medium. When he moved into his deceased grandparents‘ flat in 2008, he encountered familiar rooms and objects, which he captured in photographic interiors and still lifes. They seemed to recapitulate what had passed, the course of time, to transform it, and in doing so to stand under the spell of the question of how one’s own personal perception has developed or is continually changing. His grandfather too was a doctor by profession and, as is customary in the region, went hunting in his free time – as did his father. In this respect medicine and hunting have had a direct or indirect effect on Francesco Neri’s métier as a photographer. The parallel between photographing and hunting has often been drawn. Photography has long since earned its place as a recognised instrument for the observation and documentation of given facts and provides essential preconditions for the analytical examination of what is depicted in a diagnostic context. Francesco Neri makes use of these dimensions by combining, in the effect of his photographs taken with a large-format camera, the documentary with poetry in the most varied of ways.

Exhibition:
Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Köln, 1/9/2017 – 28/1/2018