 | “FOCUS
ON FEMALE" at Orvieto
Fotografia 2009
Since
1999 Orvieto has welcomed a very important event in photography: Orvieto Fotografia
Convention.
Orvieto is an historic town in central Italy, visited by many tourists
that enjoy its beautiful architecture, good cooking, genuine wine, artistic pottery,
and the chance of shopping in its narrow streets.
The town played a leading
role in the Etruscan culture and later on, in the Middle Age, it reached its peak
with beautiful churches such as the Cathedral and buildings like “Palazzo
dei Sette” and “Palazzo del Popolo”, used for exhibitions, seminars
and lectures of Orvieto Fotografia Convention. |
The
Italian national photography associations brought about "ORVIETO FOTOGRAFIA",
an event which in just a few years has become Europe most important international
conference about photography. After six successful editions, in 2004 Orvieto Fotografia
International Foundation (F.I.O.F.) was born. It is a permanent Foundation for
the promotion and development of professional photography, both at national and
international levels, thus contributing to the professional development of photographers.
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"ORVIETO
FOTOGRAFIA" is sponsored by (European Federation of Professional Photographers)
and by WCPP (World Council for Professional Photographers), as well as Companies
such as Nikon, Hasselblad, Epson, Fujifilm and others.
The convention includes
exhibitions, seminars, lectures by photographers and a specific award named FIOF
Professional Photography Award, addressed to different fields ranging from advertising
to personal research, wedding, photojournalism, and portrait.
This year
the main topic of the convention, which took place from March 13th to March 15th
was "FOCUS ON FEMALE". The program was really amazing.
Most of the exhibitions, seminars and
lectures were led by women photographers. Many women
photographers also in the staff, as Licia Papini, President of F.I.O.F. and
Laura Sassi and Jessica Morelli, curators of the publications and
catalogues of Orvieto Fotografia.
I was invited to lecture about
my census of European Women Photographers carried on at the end of 2000, and about
Women In Photography International, an organization I belong as a PROmember.
| I
presented WIPI's web site to show what an amazing source of oportunities
there for women photographers worldwide. I talked about
its history, organisation and exhibitions-contests open to all the women
photographers. The audience and the staff were really interested in the project
that WIPI has carried on since its foundation, and showed sincere appreciation
for the many sources the huge website provides to photographers. |
Patrizia
Pulga and Licia Papini, the President of FIOF |
The
day after, Italian Letizia Battaglia, one of the most important women photographer,
(see her placement in WIPI “Distinguished Photographer Award 2008)
presented an exhibition of her work and a lecture about a tough topic:
“The life of a women photographer against mafia” |
| | Letizia
Battaglia and Augusto Pieroni, historian of photography |
Letizia
began her career in 1974 as a photojournalist for “L’Ora”, a
Palermo newspaper. Since then her work has come to represent Sicily and Mafia
all around the world. Over the years she documented the ferocious internal war
afflicting Mafia, and its assaults on civil society. Her images in black/white
played a central role in the anti-mafia campaign. Letizia, now 73, won Eugene
Smith prize in 1985. She has dedicated herself to many other projects such as
a school of photography, an art gallery and a publishing house focused on human
rights issues.
Letizia's
work has been published in the book “Pace, giustizia, libertà”
(Peace, Justice, Freedom). |
Absolutely
different the pictures of Nancy Fina, another woman photographer invited to the
convention. www.nancyfina.com
Fina's images, full with strokes of overfilled
colours, let transpire all her lively dash.
Nancy, born in the U.S.A.,
came with her family to Italy when she was 20, and started her career in Milan,
shooting pictures for fashion and advertising. Currently she works in Italy and
around
the world creating glamour pictures for advertising campaigns, catalogues,
cosmetics, and publishing, all in digital formats.
Then it was the turn
of Lucille Feremans, a woman photographer from Belgium, who lectured about her
pictures of weddings. “Matrimonio al Femminile” was the title
she had chosen for the lecture.
www.feremans.com
|  | | | Nancy
Fina (left) and Licia Papini President of FIOF |
Furthermore,
the exhibits of the “deboutantes" Alessandra Salardi, Angelina
Chavez, Annalisa Ceolin, Daniela Perego, Marta Sarlo and Patricia Dubien, all
young European women photographers, represented a perfect framing to further underline
the very high quality of the event.
For the whole program: www.orvietofotografia.org
All phtographs copyright the photographers. Photographs
by: Patrizia Pulga, Patrizia Pieri, Ulderico
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A lot
of thanks to the photographers Patrizia Pieri and Ulderico, who provided me the
pictures
of myself, Letizia Battaglia and Nancy Fina.
All phtographs
© copyright the photographers.
Photographs by: Patrizia Pulga, Patrizia
Pieri, Ulderico
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