Franco Fontana (born 9 December 1933) is an Italian

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

. He is best known for his abstract colour landscapes.

Biography

Franco Fontana was born in 1933 in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

. He started taking photographs in the 1950s when he was working as a decorator in a furniture showroom.Colombo, Cesare., Bignardi, Irene, Zannier, Italo, and Fratelli Alinari. Museo Di Storia Della Fotografia. Italy, the One and Only : A Century of Photography, 1900-2000 / Curated by Cesare Colombo ; Texts, Irene Bignardi, Cesare Colombo, Italo Zannier ; with the Collaboration of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Central Office of Cultural Affairs. Firenze: Alinari, 1998. Print. In 1961 he joined a local amateur club in Modena. The experience would be a turning point in his career, and Fontana went on to have his first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Società Fotografica Subalpina, Turin and at the Galleria della Sala di Cultura in Modena in 1968. Since then he has participated in more than 400 group and solo exhibitions. Fontana has photographed for advertising campaigns for brands such as

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate ...

, Snam,

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

Versace Gianni Versace S.r.l. (), usually referred to as Versace ( ), is an Italian luxury fashion company founded by Gianni Versace in 1978 known for flashy prints and bright colors. The company produces Italian-made ready-to-wear and accessories, as w ...

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

, Robe di Kappa,

Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...

, and has been a magazine photographer for publications including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

,'' ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

,'' ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' (USA and France), '' Venerdì di Repubblica,'' ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'', and with the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Fontana's first book, ''Skyline,'' was published in 1978 in France by Contrejour and in Italy by Punto e Virgola with a text by

Helmut Gernsheim Helmut Erich Robert Kuno Gernsheim (1 March 1913 – 20 July 1995) was a historian of photography, a collector and a photographer. Early life and education Born in Munich, Germany, he was the third son of the academic librarian Karl Gernsheim an ...

. Fontana is the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival. He has received numerous awards, such as the 1989 Tokyo Photographer Society of Japan - The 150 Years of Photography - Photographer Award.

Style and critical reception

Fontana is especially interested in the interplay of colours. His early innovations in colour photography in the 1960s were stylistically disruptive. According to art critic Giuliana Scimé, Fontana "destroyed all the structures, practices, and technical choices within the Italian tradition." Fontana uses

35mm 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM 35 mm may refer to: * 135 film, a type of still photography format ...

cameras, and as noted by Iwan Zahar, deploys distant viewpoints with telephoto lenses to flatten contours in a landscape of crops and fields into bands of intense, saturated colour. This is an effect that Franco Lefèvre has described as 'dialectical landscapism'. Of his use of colour in his 2019 retrospective exhibition ''Sintesi'' ('Synthesis') at Fondazione Modena Arti Visive, curator Diana Baldon has observed;

“His bold geometric compositions are characterised by shimmering colours, level perspectives and a geometric-formalist and minimal language...By adopting this approach during the 1960s, Fontana injected a new vitality into the field of creative colour photography for then multicolour was not in fashion in art photography...The way Fontana shoots, dematerialises the objects photographed, which loose three-dimensionality and realism to become part of an abstract drawing”.

Aside from the rural landscape Fontana has applied his graphic sensibility to other subjects: city architecture, portraiture, fashion, still-life and the nude. Fontana's photographs have also been used as album cover art for records produced by the

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

jazz label.

Permanent collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, Sydney *

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, New York *

The Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

Kemper Art Museum The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, it w ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Amon may refer to: Mythology * Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra * Aamon, a Goetic demon People Momonym * Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah Given name * Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American p ...

Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the permanent col ...

Williams College Museum of Art The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is a college-affiliated art museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is located on the campus of Williams College, and is close to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and the Clark Ar ...

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...

*National Museum, Beijing *

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Tokyo Photographic Art Museum The is an art museum concentrating on photography. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it was founded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and is in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest Tokyo. The museum also ...

* Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Latina *

Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art The Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (Italian - ''Galleria civica d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Torino'' or ''GAM Torino'') is an art gallery in Turin, Italy, founded in 1891-1895 and located in 31 via Magenta. With the MAO ...

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London

Publications

*''Modena una città'', text by Pier Paolo Preti, Ruggeri, Modena 1970 *''Terra da leggere'', text by Pier Paolo Preti, IKS editrice, Modena 1974 *''Bologna, Il volto della città'', text by Pier Luigi Cervellati, Ricardo Franco Levi Editore, Modena 1975 *''Laggiù gli uomini'', text by

Enzo Biagi Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan. Life and career Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpla ...

, Ricardo Franco Levi Editore, Modena 1976 *''Sky-line'', text by

, Punto e Virgola, Modena e Contrejour, Paris 1978 *''Presenze veneziane'', text by

Achille Bonito Oliva Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contempo ...

e Angelo Schwarz, Maurizio Rossi Editore, Modena 1979 *''Paesaggio urbano'', text by Angelo Schwarz, Selezione d’Immagini, Milan 1980 *''Presenza-Assenza'', text by Giuliana Scimé, Selezione d’Immagini, Milan 1982 *''I grandi fotografi'', text by Achille Bonito Oliva e Giuliana Scimé, Fabbri Editori, Milan 1983 *''Full Color'', text by Guy Mandery, Contrejour, Paris 1983 *''I primi dieci ristoranti e alberghi d’Italia'', texts by

Giovanni Agnelli Giovanni Agnelli (13 August 1866 – 16 December 1945) was an Italian businessman, who founded Fiat car manufacturing in 1899. Early life The son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti, he was born in 1866 in Villar Perosa, a small town near ...

e Giovanni Nuvoletti, La chiave d’oro Editrice, Modena 1983 *''Los Grandes Fotografos'', Ediciones Orbis, Barcelona 1983 *''Capire domani 1933-1983'', Edizione Stet, Florence 1983 *''Meisterfotos Gestalten'', text by Pier Paolo Preti, Verlag Laterna Magica, Munich 1983 *''Piscina'', Diapress, Milan 1984 *''EU 42'', text by

Paolo Portoghesi Paolo Portoghesi (born 2 November 1931, Rome) is an Italian architect, theorist, historian and professor of architecture at the University La Sapienza in Rome. He is a former president of the architectural section of the Venice Biennale (1979–92 ...

, Rondanini, Rome 1984 *''Franco Fontana'', Nippon Geijutsu, Tokyo 1984 *''I dogi della moda'', Associazione Comitato Veneziamoda, 1984 *''Disney World Epcot Center'', text by

Roy Disney Roy Disney may refer to: * Roy O. Disney (1893–1971), partner and elder brother of Walt Disney * Roy E. Disney Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive f ...

, Edizioni Panini, Modena 1986 *''Lui lavora lì'', text by Liborio Termine, Edizioni Panini, Modena 1986 *''Università Oggi'', Edizione Opere Universitarie, Rome, 1986 *''San Marino e il gioco delle apparenze'', text by

Sergio Zavoli Campania (2013–2018) , birth_date = , birth_place = Ravenna, Italy , death_date = , death_place = Rome, Italy , nationality = Italian , profession = Politician, journalist , party = DS (2004–2007) ...

, Cassa di Risparmio di RSM,

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, 1986 *''Imola Imola'', text by Aureliano Bassani, Edizioni Cerim, Imola, 1987 *''Franco Fontana'', text by Giuliana Scimé, Umberto Allemandi Editore, Turin, 1987 *''Franco Fontana'', Rebecchi, Modena, 1988 *''Il corpo scoperto''. Il nudo in fotografia, text by Daniela Palazzoli, Idea Books, Milan 1988 *''L’universo nel piatto'', Rebecchi, Modena, 1989 *''I nudi di Franco Fontana in Polaroid'', text by Liborio Termine, Aleph, Turin, 1989 *''Invito a Bologna'', text by Athos Vianelli, Magnus, Udine 1989 *''Il carnevale di Viareggio'', text by

Alberto Bevilacqua Alberto Bevilacqua (27 June 1934 – 9 September 2013) was an Italian writer and filmmaker. Leonardo Sciascia, an Italian writer and politician, read Bevilacqua's first collection of stories, ''The Dust on the Grass'' (1955), was impressed and ...

, Mondadori Arte, Milan, 1989 *''Kaleidoscope'', text by Christian Caujolle e Franco Lefèvre, Edizioni Arte, Udine, 1990 *''Franco Fontana è venuto una volta a Torino e l’ha vista così'', Rebecchi, Modena, 1990 *''Sakura, sogni paralleli,'' Cassa di Risparmi di Vignola, 1990 *''40 immagine inedite di Franco Fontana'', text by Mauro Corradini e Giandomenico Semeraro, Edizione del Museo Ken Damy, Brescia, 1990 *''Modena Effetto Notte'', Graphis, Bologna, 1990 *''Viaggio in Sicilia'', Graphis, Bologna, 1992 *''Modena effetto notte'', Graphis, Bologna, 1992 *''Universo nel piatto 2'', Graphis, Bologna, 1993 *''Aemilia'', text by Candido Bonvicini, Edizioni Biblos, Padua 1993 *''Landscape moments'', Rebecchi, Modena, 1994 *''Franco Fontana'', text by Flaminio Gualdoni, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 1994 *''Le ricette erotiche'', text by G. Bolognesi, Graphis, Bologna, 1995 *''Franco Fontana Landscape'', edizione limitata a cento copie, Ken Damy Polimedia, Brescia, 1996 *''100 fiori, simboli, messaggi di libertà'', text by Lello Piazza, Mondadori, Milan, 1997 *''Janua Urbis'', A. Pizzi, 1997 *''Polaroid'', text by

Francesco Guccini Francesco Guccini (, born 14 June 1940) is an Italian singer-songwriter, considered one of the most important '' cantautori'' of his time. During the five decades of his music career he has recorded 16 studio albums and collections, and 6 live a ...

, Motta Fotografia, Milan, 1997 *''Modena ieri e oggi'', text by Michele Smargiassi, Associazione Giuseppe Panini, Modena, 1998 *''Franco Fontana antologica'', text by Giorgio Cortenova e Walter Guadagnini, Leonardo Arte, Milan, 2000 *''Sorpresi nella luce americana'', text by

Giampiero Mughini Giampiero (often Gianpiero or Gian Piero) is an Italian male given name. List of people Giampiero *Giampiero Albertini, Italian actor *Giampiero Artegiani, Italian singer *Giampiero Boniperti, Italian footballer *Giampiero Catone, Italian politic ...

, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2000 *''Emerging Bodies Collezione Polaroid'', Edizioni Stemmle, Zurich, 2000 *''Emilia Romagna da gustare'', text by Antonio Piccinardi, Giorgio Mondadori Editore, Milan, 2000 *''Il paesaggio che verrà'', text by

Piero Angela Piero Domenico Angela (; 22 December 1928 – 13 August 2022) was an Italian television host, science journalist, writer, and pianist. He started as a radio reporter, then became a foreign correspondent, and established himself as the host of ...

e Giuseppe Pederiali, Panini, Modena 2000 *''Historic Route 66'', with

Valerio Massimo Manfredi Valerio Massimo Manfredi (born 8 March 1943) is an Italian historian, writer, essayist, archaeologist and journalist. Biography He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia province of Modena and, after getting a degree in Classical Arts at ...

, Skira, Milan, 2002 *''Franco Fontana, a cura di Giovanna Calvenzi'', testo di Massimo Mussini, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2003 *''Paesaggio'', with Mario Giacomelli, text by

Federico Zeri Federico Zeri (12 August 1921 – 5 October 1998) was an Italian art historian specialised in Italian Renaissance painting. He wrote for the Italian newspaper '' La Stampa'', and was a well known television-personality in Italy. Zeri was born i ...

, Edizioni Gribaudo, Asti, 2003 *''Antiche penombre in controluce'', Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena, 2003 *''Retrospettiva'', text by Allan D. Coleman e Giuliana Scimé, Edizioni Logos, Modena, 2003 *''Appia Regina viarum'', text by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Trnsmec, 2003 *''Paesaggi con Andrea Micheli Galleria degli animali'', text by Renato Barilli e

Giorgio Celli Giorgio Celli (16 July 1935 – 11 June 2011) was an Italian entomologist, ecologist, professor, writer, and politician. Early life Celli was born in Verona. After receiving his degree in agronomical sciences in 1959, Celli taught at the ...

, Mazzotta Editore, Milan, 2005 *''Appunti siciliani'', text by Liborio Termine e

Gianni Riotta Gianni Riotta (born 1954 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian journalist, a regular contributor for the daily newspaper La Stampa and a former editor-in-chief of the financial newspaper ''Il Sole 24 Ore'', Rai 3 and the news bulletin TG1. He has co ...

, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2006 *''La via Emilia'', text by Francesco Guccini e Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Atlante, Bazzano, 2006 *''Il tempo fissato''. Pietre e colori a Morgantina, text by

Vincenzo Consolo Vincenzo Consolo (18 February 1933 – 21 January 2012) was an Italian writer. Consolo was born in Sant'Agata di Militello, but resided in Milan from 1969 until his death. He began his literary career in 1963, but gained wider attention in 197 ...

e Liborio Termine, Ed. Università Kore, 2006 *''Alassio'', Comune di Alassio, 2008 *''Fabbriche di sassi'', with Luigi Ottani, Anna Prandi, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2008 *''Modena effetto notte, reloaded'', Ed. italiana e inglese, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2009 *''Paesaggi a confronto'', Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2010 *''Donne'', Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena, 2010 *''Grandi autori, Fotografia contemporanea'', edited by Claudio Pastrone, Fiaf, Turin, 2011 *''L’anima un paesaggio interiore'', text by

Giorgio Faletti Giorgio Faletti (; 25 November 1950 – 4 July 2014) was an Italian writer, musician, actor and comedian. Born in Asti, Piedmont, he lived on Elba Island. His books have been translated into 25 languages and published with great success in Euro ...

e Liborio Termine, 24 Ore Cultura, Gruppo 24 Ore, Milan, 2011 *''Skyline'', texts by Claude Nori and Francesco Zanot, Contrasto due, Rome, 2013 *''Franco Fontana. A life of photos'', Italian and English editions, Postcart, Rome, 2013 *''Bellezze Disarmoniche'', Artestampa, 2014 *''Franco Fontana - FULL COLOR'', Ediz. Marsilio, Venice, 2014 *''Vita Nova'', Ediz. Sabrina Raffaghello, 2014 *''Vista d'Autore'', Canon-EXPO, 2015 *''Terra Alma et Amara'', 100 numbered copies signed with a poem by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, 2015 *''La Fotografia Creativa'', Mondadori, Milan *''Italia a Scatti Il Racconto di Grandi Fotografi'', Electa, Milan

References

External links

Fontana's official website, ItalyPhotos by Fontana
from Robert Klein gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fontana, Franco 20th-century Italian photographers 20th-century Italian male artists Italian contemporary artists Living people 1933 births Artists from Modena 21st-century Italian photographers Italian photographers 21st-century Italian male artists Commercial photographers Landscape photographers