Elio Ciol
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Elio Ciol (born 1929) 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 ...
and
publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
who was born in
Casarsa della Delizia Casarsa della Delizia, simply known as Casarsa (Standard Friulian: ; Western Friulian: ), is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pordenone in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about east ...
in
Friuli-Venezia Giulia (man), it, Friulana (woman), it, Giuliano (man), it, Giuliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_t ...
, the region where he has principally lived and worked. His father was a photographer who kept a studio in their hometown and Elio was fascinated by the technical aspects and worked in the darkroom as a boy. A formative experience was when, during the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
occupation, a German doctor brought in films with photographs of the countryside rather than of people, "photographs that I myself should have been able to do and which I had not done or even imagined."''Italia Black and White'', pp. xxv–xxvi. He began practising photography at fifteen, worked full-time in the studio from nineteen, and spent an increasing amount of his free time taking photographs for his own interests. A trip to
Assisi Assisi (, also , ; from la, Asisium) is a town and ''comune'' of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Propertius, born aroun ...
in 1951 made a great impression; Ciol subsequently spent much time there, taking many photographs. Dissatisfied with the conventions demanded in Italian photographic contests, Ciol ambitiously entered contests abroad; in 1955 and 1956 he was encouraged by favorable mentions in the American magazine ''
Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...
''. Ciol was greatly influenced by the ideas of Luigi Crocenzi, emphasizing ''sequence'' rather than single images when illustrating a book or other story (an example had been Crocenzi's ''Conversazione in Sicilia'', with text by
Elio Vittorini Elio Vittorini (; 23 July 1908 – 12 February 1966) was an Italian writer and novelist. He was a contemporary of Cesare Pavese and an influential voice in the modernist school of novel writing. His best-known work is the anti-fascist novel '' Co ...
). Ciol moved to Milan in 1963 to work on projects for the firm of Altimani; this soon ran into financial difficulties and Ciol returned to Casarsa, but invigorated with new ideas for the illustration and layout of books. He has illustrated dozens of books since that time. Ciol has concentrated on creating a photographic record and archive of Italian works of art, architecture, landscapes, and archaeological sites and artefacts, particularly in
Friuli Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giulia ...
. His works are black and white, sometimes employing infrared-sensitive film. Some of his photographs show people so close as to be recognizable, but more often people appear as small figures within landscapes. More often still the landscapes are devoid of people.


Notes


Bibliography

*Ciol, Elio. ''Italia Black and White,'' ed. Giovanni Chiaramonte. Milan: Jaca ("Punto e Virgola"), 1985. A survey of Ciol's work, with about a hundred full-page prints, and all texts and captions in both Italian and English. *Ciol, Elio. ''Assisi.'' Milan: Motta, 1991. *Ciol, Elio. ''Venezia.'' Milan: Motta, 1995. *Ciol, Elio. ''Dove l'infinito è presente / The Presence of Infinity.'' Tricesimo, Udine: Roberto Vattori, 1996. Ten portfolios, each of between ten and twelve black and white photographs on a theme or of a place, published on the occasion of their exhibition in September/October 1996 at the Galleria della Loggia, Assisi. The photographs are of Italy (especially Assisi),
Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
(California), Yemen (notably Sanʻāʼ), and Greece. Captions are in Italian only, but each portfolio has an introductory text (by one of a number of critics) in both Italian and English. *Ciol, Elio. ''Cinquant'anni di fotografia,'' ed. Giuseppe Bergamini. Milan: Motta, 1999. *Ciol, Elio. ''L'enchantement de la vision.'' Campanotto, 2000. *Ciol, Elio, and Stefano Ciol. ''La facciata del Duomo di Orvieto: Teologia in figura.'' Silvana, 2002. *Ciol, Elio. ''Concrete astrazioni'', a cura di Sergio Momesso e Carlo Sala, Punto Marte Edizioni, 2007.


References


Anglo-American Name Authority File, s.v. "Ciol, Elio", LC Control Number n 79055042, cited 10 February 2006

Union List of Artists Names, s.v. "Ciol, Elio", cited 10 February 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciol, Elio 1929 births Living people People from Casarsa della Delizia Italian photographers