What: 20 portrait photographs
Where: Café Letteraio-Palazzo Mauri Spoleto
Who: Virgilio Massani
When: Now through July 15, 2011
Little by little in these past 4 years I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Virgilio Massani. I would see a man swaying in a restricted but precise gait through Piazza Liberta’, one hand clutching a portfolio and the other a cane to balance his stride. His goal was clear… to arrive… his determination was clear, to arrive at Bar Canasta where his external office for private portfolio viewings could begin. This is how we first met by the chance the first time to do a visual history re-pass.
His signature style is black and white, MOMENTS OF THE PAST. The majority of his portfolio revolves around the Festival dei 2 Mondi, Spoleto’s international art explosion.
Virgilio was born in Terni, 7 April 1937. His parents arrived in Spoleto when he was 14. He grew in up in this small village or (my village as I call it) between two worlds, the world of Spoletini Umbrian culture and the world of the international artistic guests arriving each summer.
In his early twenties, a friend lent him his camera. Within these moments of snapping the camera’s buttons a new found love was found, photography. Off he went to buy his first camera, a PENTAX. That was nearly fifty years ago.
From that moment on, images no longer needed to be recorded and filed mentally as his Pentax became his external memory. He has a room dedicated to his some 40,000 images there.
One of his earliest memories was being struck by the beauty of a young beautiful Spoletina girl dressed simply in mini dress. The image so penetrated his mind, he asked her if her could photograph her, and she agreed. This ignited a passion of a life time. For the last 30 years he has been published and exhibiting throughout Europe in art shows, magazines and journals, not to forget his favorite model being Bridget Bardot.
He is now 75 and a bit wiser after experiencing a stroke 4 years ago and currently suffering from Parkinson’s disease. We learned that we both had experienced strokes and both suffered from incurable diseases that wreak havoc on our immune, neurological, and our bodies' failure to comply with our mind’s wishes. We share in common experimental drugs from the USA to relive our symptoms and help us moves forward. It seemed a simple thing to deepen our appreciation and respect for one another…
What I saw in this brief interview is what I have gotten to know about Virgilio and his aficionado for photography, a sheer determination…. a determination to move forward (despite his significant physical restrictions) while ensuring the past is told, told and told again.
He is a visual historian documenting transient glimpses from the past where two worlds converged into one, Spoleto, Italy.
This photo exhibition is well worthy of a visit with some time to reflect, to look back at half a century’s glamorous past lives, with likes of Morgan Freedman, Ellen Stewart, a.k.a La MaMa and other famous musicians and performers amongst the 20 simple but striking works.
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