Robert Polidori
ROBERT POLIDORI’S FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN HONG KONG
Internationally renowned photographer Robert Polidori has his first Hong Kong solo show at Sundaram Tagore Gallery. Take a look online now at www.sundaramtagore.com So beautiful.
These are exquisite images – rich in minute detail and saturated colour, luscious interiors that each has its own compelling narrative. Multi-award winning photographer Robert Polidori began his career with an atmospheric series on the restoration of the Chateau de Versailles. He went on to photograph the devastation post Chernobyl and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, among other significant events. Born in Montreal and based in New York, he’s published 11 books, worked for numerous newspapers and magazines notably the New Yorker, and even photographed fashion (take a look at Bottega Veneta’s stunning Fall/Winter 2011/2012 campaign). He’s represented in prestigious collections worldwide, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s V&A.
In Polidori’s work, architectural spaces are allowed to tell emotive human stories of culture, society, the passage of time, history, loss, destruction, celebration, reward. He describes vacant rooms as exoskeletons of people’s lives. His pictures (taken with a large format camera using slow shutter speeds) of Chateau de Versailles and various interiors in Havana, Cuba are gorgeous to look at: in tonal range, depth, perspective and moral weight, they are like Dutch master paintings. The colours have texture, they are soft as old suede or gleam like silver; there’s soulful beauty in the fall of light and in the detail (lavish decoration, or part removed plastic sheeting, or peeling walls), layers of memory and meaning captured and exposed by the camera’s all seeing eye.
- SB
Images: Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Above: Bedroom, Ciudadela, formerly the house of Countess O’Reilly, the Condesa de Buenavista, 6 #320, Miramar, Havana, Cuba, 2001, Fujicolor Crystal archive print, 40 x 50 inches
These are exquisite images – rich in minute detail and saturated colour, luscious interiors that each has its own compelling narrative. Multi-award winning photographer Robert Polidori began his career with an atmospheric series on the restoration of the Chateau de Versailles. He went on to photograph the devastation post Chernobyl and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, among other significant events. Born in Montreal and based in New York, he’s published 11 books, worked for numerous newspapers and magazines notably the New Yorker, and even photographed fashion (take a look at Bottega Veneta’s stunning Fall/Winter 2011/2012 campaign). He’s represented in prestigious collections worldwide, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and London’s V&A.
In Polidori’s work, architectural spaces are allowed to tell emotive human stories of culture, society, the passage of time, history, loss, destruction, celebration, reward. He describes vacant rooms as exoskeletons of people’s lives. His pictures (taken with a large format camera using slow shutter speeds) of Chateau de Versailles and various interiors in Havana, Cuba are gorgeous to look at: in tonal range, depth, perspective and moral weight, they are like Dutch master paintings. The colours have texture, they are soft as old suede or gleam like silver; there’s soulful beauty in the fall of light and in the detail (lavish decoration, or part removed plastic sheeting, or peeling walls), layers of memory and meaning captured and exposed by the camera’s all seeing eye.
- SB
Images: Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Above: Home of Mercedes Alfonso Linea 508 (Between D and E), Vibora, Havana, Cuba, 1997, archival inkjet print, 40 x 50 inches
Robert Polidori Ars Memorativa at Sundaram Tagore Gallery Hong Kong September 25 – October 16, 2011. Take a look at the website image galley http://www.sundaramtagore.com/exhibitions/2011-09-15_robert-polidori/selected-works/Above: Salle de Crimée Sud, (99) ANR.02.036, Salles de l’Afrique, Aile du Nord – 1er étage, Château de Versailles, 1985, archival inkjet print, 40 x 50 inches
