Gabriele Basilico in his own words
→Writings and audiovisual documents offering a deeper knowledge of his work.
«Taking photographs of a city requires making typological, historical and emotional choices. Often it means looking for significant places and constructing stories and relationships, sometimes with distant places stored in your memory, or even imaginary places»
from "Abitare la Metropoli", Contrasto, Roma 2013, p.51
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from "Abitare la Metropoli", Contrasto, Roma 2013, p.51
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«In the unusually limpid light of Easter 1978, cruising around the city from one district to another, map in hand, I ended up in the 14th district, between Via Ripamonti and Via Ortles, an area characterized chiefly by industrial buildings. For the first time I "saw" the streets and in them the facades of the factories silhouetted clearly, sharply and in isolation against an unexpectedly blue sky, and a familiar view suddenly became unusual»
from "Milano ritratti di fabbriche", Sugarco, Milano 1984, p.14
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from "Milano ritratti di fabbriche", Sugarco, Milano 1984, p.14
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«For me, over the years Milan has become a kind of seaport, a private place whence to depart to other seas, other cities, and then return and subsequently set off again. A port, that is a stationary, stable place, where I can accumulate exhibits and impressions of distant places»
from "Interrupted city", Actar, Barcelona 1999, pag.2-3
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from "Interrupted city", Actar, Barcelona 1999, pag.2-3
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«What interests me constantly, almost obsessively, is the contemporary urban landscape, the aesthetic and social phenomenon of the massive, uncontrollable transformations taking place in the cities of our planet. I think that photography has been, and perhaps continues to be, a sensitive and particularly effective tool for recording this»
from "Abitare la Metropoli", Contrasto, Roma 2013, p.53
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from "Abitare la Metropoli", Contrasto, Roma 2013, p.53
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«I like to think that I have learned, as a photographer, to set myself aside, relinquishing an excessively subjective and often artificial way of depicting the world in favour of an apparently objective vision of reality, marked by a profound respect for my subjects»
from "Leggere le Fotografie in dodici lezioni", Abitare-Rizzoli, Milano 2012, p.47
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from "Leggere le Fotografie in dodici lezioni", Abitare-Rizzoli, Milano 2012, p.47
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«Cities are like a book you have to read from beginning to end, otherwise you risk missing their meaning; not just their monuments and long-established districts, but above all their suburbs, the newly developed areas. In my photographic career I have always ended up by going a bit further, beyond the city limits. In effect, these are the areas which are of most interest to me»
from "Architetture, Città, Visioni", Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2007, p.134
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from "Architetture, Città, Visioni", Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2007, p.134
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«I take photos of empty spaces as protagonists in their own right, with all their poetry, potency, and humanizing capacity for communication, because the empty spaces in architecture are a structural, integral part of its being»
from "Architetture, Città, Visioni", Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2007, p.101
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from "Architetture, Città, Visioni", Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2007, p.101
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«For me searching for new subjects does not exclude repetition. On the contrary, in my work it is a constant, methodical attitude. It has accompanied me for a very long time and helps me to create my photos and observe space without hesitation and I might also say with serenity. I like to combine the methodical gesture of repetition with, in practice, that of measurement. By this I mean taking the measure of the space before me, trying to understand its nature, reveal its mysteries or, metaphysically speaking, to solve its enigmas»
from "Basilico-Salvo", Lubrina Editore, Bergamo 2002, p.79
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from "Basilico-Salvo", Lubrina Editore, Bergamo 2002, p.79
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