Signed Pepi Merisio - Il Gioco - 2013

Exceptionally signed first edition on the title page by Pepi Merisio (1931 – 2021), unavailable online in signed copies, 96 pages and more than 45 black-and-white photographs with a few in color, texts in Italian and French by Cesare Colombo, Raffaella Ferrari and Daria Jorioz. Solid illustrated cloth binding on the cover. In excellent condition.

“Like many ‘humanist’ photographers of his generation, throughout his career Pepi Merisio relentlessly pinpointed the condition of children and teenagers… and these photographs always mark the fortuitous encounter with his young subjects… On this occasion too we find in his view of play an overall vision of the contemporary world… A very clear conviction emerges: children ‘play’ as adults live and act, as adults live and act, quarrel, or focus to think… The play of children is a game only in our eyes, for we have forgotten its seriousness… It seems that in his ability to take photos at the exact right moment, Pepi Merisio hints at a return, with a touch of regret, to his own past now distant… » (According to Cesare Colombo).

Pepi Merisio, independent photographer, spent almost his entire life in the territory of Bergamo, which he explored in all its extent, traversing its plains and valleys as well as the high mountain villages. He quickly gained significant international recognition, since in July 1966 the Camera magazine, published in Lucerne, Switzerland in French, devoted a substantial feature to him. While serving as editor of Camera, Roméo Martinez introduced him into the Les Grands photographes collection, and Pepi Merisio signed with Gianni Berengo Gardin, who regarded him as a brother in photography, the volume on Lazio for the Touring Club of Italy.

The illustrious photographer Ferdinando Scianna stated in 2021 upon Pepi Merisio’s death: “I met Pepi in 1967 when I had just arrived from Sicily, and he already had great international prestige.” “He had just won an international prize with the reportage on Uncle Angelo’s death; many people gravitated around him, and I had great admiration… He had chosen his visual relationship with the world, the world he wanted to talk about and the way he wanted to do it… He had a political-cultural commitment more than a direct one… He was a great anthropologist of the rural world. His archives are a cultural treasure that we will continue to need to understand where we come from and where we are going, if indeed we are going somewhere.” (https://bergamo.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/21_febbraio_04/ferdinando-sciannalui-ci-fa-capire-dove-veniamo-19b7d422-66bc-11eb-8ada-57b39586265a.shtml)

Book from my personal collection kept with the utmost care, in very good overall condition with slight age-related wear, particularly to the dust jacket. Protected shipping with reinforced packaging and insured international tracking. In case of multiple purchases, possible grouped shipping with reimbursement of any excess postal charges paid via PayPal.

0.4 kg excluding packaging.