Signed; Giovanni Chiaramonte - Senza foce [ with SLIPCASE ] - 2005

Exceptionally signed copy on the title page Giovanni Chiaramonte (1948 - 2023), unique and not found on the internet in a signed copy. 160 pages and 64 color photographs in a two-page spread, photo captions with precise localization at the end of the book with miniature reproductions. Very beautiful orange cloth binding with title pressed in relief in yellow characters on the cover and spine, color illustrated dust jacket and a very nice orange cloth slipcase. Excellent condition, like new.

The Olona, which is the subject of this book, is a river in Northern Italy that rises near Varese at an altitude of 868 m, and after a course of 131 km, approaching Milan, the river is channeled to disappear underground and continue its course, then dividing into several branches, one of which flows into an affluent of the Po in the province of Pavia. As Francesco Zanot writes in the introduction, “Giovanni Choaramonte’s photographs are dense with contradictions … man and nature, science and ecology, city and countryside, innovation and conservation … In these images the waters of a river that once watered towns become black as asphalt [as in the cover jacket photograph] when arriving in Milan where they disappear underground.” Olona has become one of Italy’s most polluted rivers. A natural park, Parc des Moulins, named after the numerous water mills along the river, is being created in the middle valley of the river, aiming to preserve the natural environment.

Giovanni Chiaramonte came to representing landscapes and urban views after a long period of theoretical reflection that matured at the end of the 1970s. Marked by the beginning of a long season of Italian photography devoted to the theme of place, whose first collective exhibition organized by Luigi Ghirri took place Italia in January 1984 with the famous “Viaggio in Italia,” in which Giovanni Chiaramonte participated with about ten other important Italian photographers, and two years later with the collective work “Esplorazioni sulla via Emilia.”

Giovanni Chiaramonte was born in 1943 in Varese, Northern Italy, near the crossing of the Olona river, and began photographing in the late 1960s. In 1978 he founded with Luigi Ghirri the editorial cooperative “Punto e Virgola” and then directed the Jaca Book collection from which it originated. Giovanni Chiaramonte published numerous books and many exhibitions of his works have been organized in various countries. After his death, a tribute meeting was held at MUFOCO, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea (Museum of Contemporary Photography) in Cinisello Balsamo near Milan in December 2023. A museum in Milan organized from November 16, 2024 to February 9, 2025, the exhibition Realismo Infinito, presenting 40 images on the different ways of perceiving the landscape which led to the edition of a book under the same title. Parallel, from November 10, 2024 to March 9, 2025, a major posthumous retrospective of Giovanni Chiaramonte’s photographic work gathering 400 works was organized at the museum of the city of Parma. It gave rise to the publication of an important monograph, published by Electa and presented by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle.

Book from my personal collection kept with the utmost care, in excellent condition, practically like new. Shipment protected with reinforced packaging and guaranteed international tracking. For multiple purchases, possible group shipment with reimbursement of overpaid postage via Paypal.

1.1 kg. not including packaging.