Color and Geometry by Franco Fontana

Color and Geometry by Franco Fontana

First of all, Italian photographer Franco Fontana invented “photographic line”, more common known under the name of “the concept of lines.” Accordingly, since 70s of XX century, his work, thanks to its unique and recognizable style, has become a benchmark in the field of color photography. And what makes it stand out among hundreds of works of his colleagues – an incredible sense of composition, true geometric construction of the frame, and magical selection of colors.

Franco Fontana was born in the Italian city of Modena December 9, 1933. However, he was not interested in photography until 1961, when he was 28 years old. With his first 35 mm film camera, he decided to make his first shots. And two years later he had his first solo exhibition in Vienna. Besides, a year later – in Turin, and seven years after the first shots – in his native Modena.

As a result, now the photographer has a lot of followers, perhaps millions. Meanwhile, in the sixties when he started taking pictures, he tried his hand in different areas of art, looking for someone to join or anyone to follow. Then, he became interested in black and white photography, documentary, with a clearly marked social overtones. While landscape picture seemed dull and monochrome monumental in its graphic quality.

By the way, Franco saw colored dreams. In addition, he was interested in painting, and somehow became acquainted with the paintings of the American abstract expressionists. That’s something that a photographer should decide. Meanwhile, his style changed in all directions in which he worked. Most of all, it was abstract artists impressionists who influenced photographer in the minimalist attitude to the landscape. However, the first of his works have caused critics approval. Particularly, the photographs seemed more paintings than photos.

Undoubtedly, the main thing in the work of this photographer – color. Mountains, sea, coast, hills and fields appear a succession of multicolored stripes, sometimes contrasting, sometimes in a single scheme. Cityscape, on the contrary – in bright contrasting combinations, made up of windows, roofs and walls, or road markings, shadows and textures.

On his landscape photography Franco says: “I try to isolate in time and space all that is usually confused with the infinite parts. Extraction and isolation of some of the most important elements of all that appears to the human eye – one of my main requirements: to achieve a harmonic unity through the elimination of all disturbing natural elements. In this way a landscape is born which is made up by subtle relations of space, form, drawing and color“.

Color and Geometry by Franco Fontana

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