The Complete Essays

Lui­gi Ghir­ri (1943–1992) star­ted wri­ting about pho­to­gra­phy from the moment he beca­me a pho­to­gra­pher: for his own publi­ca­ti­ons, for Ita­li­an maga­zi­nes and news­pa­pers, as well as pri­va­te reflec­tions com­mit­ted to paper, whe­re his thoughts would sett­le and then often depart in new direc­tions. Publis­hed for the first time in Eng­lish, The Com­ple­te Essays 1973–1991 com­pri­ses six­ty-eight texts in which Ghir­ri explo­res the same sub­jects at the core of his pho­to­graphs — the the­mes of iden­ti­ty, time, memo­ry, visi­on, repre­sen­ta­ti­on, and sen­se of place.

As a vor­a­cious rea­der with a par­ti­cu­lar tas­te for the eclec­tic, Ghir­ri also reaches out­wards from his own prac­ti­ce to explo­re the histo­ry of pho­to­gra­phy as he con­si­ders the work of Wal­ker Evans, Wil­liam Eggles­ton, Robert Adams and John Gos­sa­ge, wea­ving in refe­ren­ces to musi­ci­ans, wri­ters and pain­ters ali­ke. As the­mes and ide­as over­lap, the com­pi­la­ti­on of texts crea­te a sort of dialec­tic cham­ber of curio­si­ties that inclu­des Gul­li­ver, Van Gogh’s yel­low house, Cézan­ne, Morandi’s stu­dio, Mall­ar­mé, the fire­works abo­ve Tra­ni Cathe­dral, neo-rea­list films, lots of music, Fran­cis Bacon, McLuhan’s glo­bal vil­la­ge, Pes­soa, poe­try. Tog­e­ther, the essays offer an unin­ten­tio­nal yet com­pre­hen­si­ve trea­tise on the histo­ry and theo­ry of pho­to­gra­phy, and abo­ve all, they con­sti­tu­te a spe­cial form of autobiography.