For some time Massimo Stefanutti has been an experimental photographer following in the footsteps of the founding fathers of photography and historical avantgarde movements such as Russian constructivism and the Bauhaus.
His work is experimental from a technical point of view - the camera used for pinhole photography and the square final format - and from the point of view of the philosophy of images.
Stefanutti’s work is an ironic and playful investigation of the polarity between true and false: a highly contemporary subject at a time of “true” and “false” photography, i.e. artificial images created by the computer with sophisticated digital technology.
The concept of perceptive and philosophical ambiguity is given visual form in “Memento mori” (2000/2001), an important series of photos by the Venetian artist. It is the first time that Stefanutti has used pinhole photography: here the world is represented in the most direct form available to photography.
The subject is a return journey to the origins and the time that memory was lost: anonymous gravestones no-one knows who is being commemorated, areas of woodland in shade, the sides of roads where the milestones look like ancient funeral stones, abandoned or deserted churches and graveyards, photographed statically in the cold light of the sublime.
An intense metaphysical vein can be felt in these scenes, where the ecstatic nature of photography is restored: the naked eye confronting the essence of a mystery recovers its original force as an initiation ritual.
The final vision of the Madonna in the wood (a white statue photographed amidst the leaves) signifies the heavenly aspect of creation, opposed to the hellfire in another photograph in the series, once again a polarity and the principle of duality between the visible and invisible.

~ Stefanutti Massimo, Italy ~ 

Born in Venice (Italy) in 1957 - he lives and works in his native city.
Member of the “La Gondola” Photography society since 1977, and Chairman between 1987 and 1994.

He has exhibited at a number of one-man shows:

- “Ombre della luna” (Shadows of the moon), il Ponte Gallery, Mestre 1995
- “2nd Exhibition of historical, modern and contemporary photography”, Thetis, Venezia, 2000
- “6th International Exhibition of Photography”, Piece di Soligo 2001
- “Contrejour”, La Fenice Gallery, Fincantieri Wartsila Photography Society, Trieste 2002
- “Ohdog, myfriend”, il Ponte Gallery, Mestre 2002

and has taken part in numerous collective exhibitions:
- “Fifty years of portrait photography at La Gondola”. Cassa di Risparmio, Venice 1999
- “3rd Exhibition of historical, modern and contemporary photography”, Italian Pavilion, Giardini di Castello, Venice 2002
- “Without lens” International Exhibition of Pinhole Photography, Santa Maria della Scala, Siena 2002

stefanut@gpnet.it

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