On the occasion of the 2002 World Cup, the Credito Valtellinese Group Gallery is presenting Roman photographer Marco Anelli's latest body of work, which includes a series of portraits of football players. Anelli was given the 2001 Fuji Italia Award and the 2001 Young Photographers Canon Award for his project on football.
Marco Anelli had never been much interested in football. Then, in May 2001, in Rome, crowds carried away after the Lazio had won the Championship made him wonder why so many people all around Italy always go to the stadium on Sundays. In the last few years, the photographer has therefore become a regular stadium goer.
This collection of photographs has been inspired by the joy, enthusiasm and frustration that football players in the first division championship experience as they are playing a match. They are part of quite a peculiar project. What really strikes is the author's point of view. In fact, it is not the point of view from which the press usually looks at sporting events. Anelli goes beyond goals, penalty kicks and free kicks to take a close look at efforts that the players in the football ground make, regarding them as modern gladiators in the arena, capturing the power of their exploits, which can stir up emotions in crowds of supporters. These are the moments when football gets rid of all frills (e.g. the transfer market, sponsors, gossip and the many trials it is continuously brought to) to convey all its liveliness.
Last year, the Grazia Neri photo agency and "Sportweek" - the Gazzetta dello Sport magazine - showed interest in Anelli's art, in particular in his way of photographing football events. They have so become the promoters of this exhibition, which is presented along with a prestigious catalogue published by Federico Motta, editor Giovanna Calvenzi, including also an unpublished text by singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla.
This collection of 83 duotone photographs, including 8 blow-ups sized 120x120 cm, 25 images sized 70x100 cm and 50 images sized 40x60 cm, is emphasized through a suggestive mounting of the exhibition. Big, hanging in space, detached from the wall, they hang over the visitors making them experience the same charming emotions as in a stadium while a football match is being played.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Marco Anelli was born in Rome on October 31st 1968.
From 1985 to 1992, he has been working with major photo agencies on projects about motors (e.g. (Attualfoto, Photo4, Studio Signori).
In 1992, he settled in Paris, where he specialized in duotone photography and studied development and printing techniques, collaborating in the same time with Agency Press/sport for the newspaper L'Equipe.
Back to Rome in 1995, he worked with the photo office of the Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vatican and finished two books called I Santi Fondatori della Basilica Vaticana - published by Panini in 1996 - and L'Ombra e la luce nella Basilica Vaticana - published by Silvana Editoriale in 1998.
In 1997, the Santa Cecilia Academy asked him to make an artistic photo campaign on two concert seasons: the one from 1997 to 1998 and the one from 1998 to 1999. The photos were then published in a book.
In the same year, on the occasion of the restoration of the façade of the Saint Peter's Basilica, EniComunicazione contacted Marco Anelli for a photo reportage to be made together with Mimmo Jodice and Olivo Barbieri. The reportage was published in La Pietra e il tempo by Silvana Editoriale in 1999.
Anelli has been working with the Agenzia Giornalistica Italia since 1998.
In 2000, he made an artistic photo reportage on the latest big sculpture that the Fabbrica del Vaticano had commissioned for the Saint Peter's Basilica. The photographs were published in Santa Caterina da Siena by La Porziuncola.
In the same year, Anelli started working on his project including a series of duotone portraits of football players in the first division championship. An award-winning project (2001 Fuji Italia Award; 2001 Young Photographers Canon Award), which he finished with the support of the Grazia Neri Agency and the magazine Sportweek.
Since 2000, Marco Anelli has been at work on a project entitled "Di te", which analyses human relations seen from other human beings' point of view. This project has won the 'Memorial Mario Giacomelli' Award, given on the occasion of the IX International Photography Biennale called 'Border stories', in 2001.
In 2001, he was contacted by Terra Moretti, a Group based in Brescia that asked Anelli to take photographs of the sculptures in the Third Millennium Sculpture Award. This has led to mount the exhibition called Evoluzione, which was hosted at the Museo Diocesano in Brescia in November 2001 and which the Grazia Neri Gallery in Milan is hosting in April and May 2002.
Photographer Marco Anelli currently works with the Grazia Neri Agency.
