Tinplate Photograph

Attilio Scimone began his photographic research in the seventies during his university studies in architecture. These were the years where he was able to further elaborate research related to visual perception, aesthetics of the landscape, and the language of photography. This training enabled him, in later years, to operate in certain specialized areas of photography. During the same years, he initiated various artistic collaborations that influenced his training. At the same time, he dedicated himself to professional work related to still-life, industrial photography, and landscapes. Since 1986, he taught photography and has ties with several public schools and, later on, with the world of vocational training. There are many books published on Sicilian landscape and architecture, but his artistic experience matured in the field of B&W photography. Since 1980, he began diligent photographic research that led him to explore the vast sphere of photographic materials, experimenting particular treatments using chemicals that interact with emulsion gelatin to create images in which the depth of light and darks blend into an ever more precise and controlled union. His images, therefore, began to take on an artistic value where the perfect combination with matter is fundamental. At the end of the eighties, he began a photographic exploration within the same emulsion. The deep blacks of his images are dissipated by the paper medium of the image to create his “grignotage”, and this is the technique that he went on to developed for a decade. Since the year2000, four important encounters marked his relationship with photography and the art world. The first was with the French critic, Jean Claude Lemagny, the second with the editor of “People Photography”, Enzo Mirisola, the third with critic and historian of photograpy Pippo Pappalardo, the fourth with the critic, Diego Gulizia and, finally, his encounter with Antonio Vitale. Thanks to these “partnerships” and “friendships”, he consolidated a somewhat tormented relationship with photography: his “simple photographs” took on a very different flavour. In this decade, he also experimented the artistic possibilities offered by Polaroid transfers, an endeavour that was rudely interrupted in early 2008 when these materials were no longer produced. He has exhibited in important artistic events, and confirmed sector magazines have published his works.