The Luxardo Gallery presents the photo exhibition

STUDIO LUXARDO VIA DEL TRITONE 197

www.gallerialuxardo.com

curated by Eva Clausen

Palazzo Venezia, Roma

12th – 30th September 2006

Rome was and remains the city of Cinema, and certainly not only because of the Cinecittà studios. At the heart of Cinema in the ‘50s and ‘60s one could also find Via del Tritone, where the Luxardo brothers Elio, Aldo and Elda honored it in their own way – with a still camera. Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Alberto Sordi, Sophia Loren, Vittorio Gassmann, and other icons of Italian cinema all attended the Luxardo photo studio. The brothers Luxardo knew how to capture the most characterful traits of these actors, as their faces would light up with a mysetrious allure, while transmitting a will to communicate, to reach out and make the observer feel emotions not unlike those one experienced when watching these performers on the silver screen.

The story began in the first years of the 20th century, when the young photographer Alfredo Luxardo decided to leave Pisa to capture a more distant subject: the USA. Together with wife Margherita, however, he decided to stop in Sao Paolo, a city which changed the destiny of the Luzardo family forever. Instead of the American Dream, his subject were the tribesmen of the Amazon, whom he captured in group photos and portraits which he developed and printed in self-learned, innovative techniques. In Brazil, Alfredo had his three children: Elio, Elda, and Aldo. In 1928 he returned in Italy where he took over the Sam Bosch studio (royally appointed photographers) in Rome, on Via XX Settembre. This is where the Rome-Luxardo companionship began. Elio, who was attending the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, together with Aldo and Elda, all worked in their father’s studio. It was the ‘30s, and the Luxardo studio set standards in photography that characterized an era. Diffused lighting complemented by reflectors, dark backdrops and shafts of light which sculpted faces and defined bodies... in fewer words, this was the birth of the Myth of Beauty, the Cult of the Body. The studio was populated by divas and sports champions, intellectuals and artists, from Pirandello to Marinetti, from Assia Noris to Isa Miranda, from Valentina Cortese to Alida Valli, to the world champion Primo Carnera.

The Luxardos somehow managed to endow these characters with an aura which was exclusive, unique. The secret lay in a thoughtful, sophisticated and innovative use of studio photography technique, which uses a dark background and decisive lighting which brought out the features and made this style unmistakable. It is in the preparation of the subject, and in the ambient lighting plans that the Luxardos created their masterpieces, transforming the pictorially airbrushed and celebrative traditional portrait into an all-round sculpted bas-relief, which instilled the face with the throb of life, edgy, ultramodern. A spotlight on the shoulders backlights the subject and plunges it into the foreground; other lights illuminate frontally, creating a plastic, seductive effect which is both mysterious and ironic, typical of the international cinema scene of the time. The most famous of the three brothers was, without a doubt, Elio Luxardo. His passion for photography began in the late ‘20s when he attended the Centro Sperimentale. He did not become a director, but chose to capture the divas of silent film, amongst whom appear the youthful visages of Valentina Cortese, Clara Calamai, and Alida Valli.

Elio Luxardo becomes a good friend of Federico Fellini who, in the mid ‘30s has just become a writer for the magazine Marc’Aurelio, and soon becomes one of its most prominent voices. Luxardo recognizes his genius potential, and encourages him to try new paths, understanding that Federico’s way of seeing was a cinematic way, and in 1939 asks him to write the script based on his column Seconda Liceo. Luxardo had the equipment, the crew, and the actors; he finally had a chance to direct a movie, a great dream of his, but the project evaporates. War breaks out. In the postwar period, the Luxardo Studio dedicates itself increasingly to the new cinema, to the Dolce Vita, the “poor but beautiful” films and the Miss Italia beauty pageants which gave birth to divas such as Sofia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. The style changes, the lighting is less cutting, softer, and although the lines remain incisive they are now enveloped in a veil of nostalgia, mystery and sweetness. Enter the unforgettable images of Vittorio Gassmann, De Sica, Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Claudia Cardinale, and many more. In the ‘60s Elio Luxardo departs from photography: he acquires some land in Sperlonga with the idea of building a resort. He personally designs the projects and invests almost all his money, but the discovery of important archaeological sites make the terrain unusable, part of the landscaping patrimony. The dream vanishes, and shortly after the photographer dies in Milan, on November 27th 1969. Sister Elda, who for years worked by the side of her famous brother, leaves the studio, after marrying Argento, film producer and father of Dario Argento. Elda Luxardo still lives in Rome today. Brother Aldo continued his work at the studio for several years but eventually left Rome and returned to Brazil. Yet the story goes on, from generation to generation. Today, Aldo’s daughter, Tiziana Luxardo, continues the family tradition in her new studio in Via del Gambero, photographing the faces of new Italian Cinema. Amongst them, you will see the face of an actor, already a star in his own right, who is continuing his father’s tradition: Alessandro Gassmann.