Mario Giacomelli (1925–2000) - Non Fatemi Domande

Artist: Mario Giacomelli

Series title: 'Don't Ask Me Questions'

Technique: Gelatin silver salt print
Letter: Agfa
Photo size: 27 x 39.8 cm.


Print Date: Vintage Photograph, print contemporaneous with the date of the shot, 1980s
Date of the shot: 1981-1983

The stamp is present on the back of the photograph.
Mario Giacomelli's studio photo. Copyright by Mario Giacomelli, Senigallia. Mark of guarantee.

EXCELLENT CONDITIONS (the images refer to the artwork and are part of the description)

The photograph will be shipped flat.

Throughout his life, Giacomelli created several series on the theme of old age, photographing the elderly in the nursing homes of Senigallia (1954–59) and Urbino (1981), giving rise to various narrative cycles: *Ospizio* (1954–56), *Vita d’ospizio* (1956–57), *Perché* (1959), *Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi* (1966–68), *Non fatemi domande* (1981–83), *Sala d’attesa* (1981–83), *Ninna nanna* (1985–87), *La zia di Franco* (1993–94), *E io ti vidi fanciulla* (1993–94).

The photographs of the nursing home are like a single long series, extracted from time, which Giacomelli revisits over the decades to reanimate the subjects, as if to ward off death.

Of all the things I have done, I think this is the most interesting research; in fact, I experienced more emotions being in contact with this environment than in all the other research combined. [...] Why? After fighting all my life, why must the end of a life be like this, why must it end in these environments, in these messed-up institutions?

These photos are more realistic, even in technique; I chose a different printing method—contrasted print on extra heavy paper. There is a fundamental cut, which you also find in the other images; simply put, these are truer than the others. More than what I had before my eyes, I wanted to convey what I had inside me, what was emerging as I immersed myself in these things: this fear of aging, not of dying, this disgust at the price paid for a life.

I made sure to become one of them, like them, so they no longer felt the camera on them.
(A. C. Quintavalle, Mario Giacomelli, Feltrinelli, Milan 1980).

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This work will be insured for the full purchase value.