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"Che ora è" La fotografia è pittura? La
fotografia deve ispirarsi alla
pittura? Più preciso è il
riferimento alla pittura più
grande è il valore della
fotografia?
Is photography painting? Should, photography draw its inspiration from
painting? Is it true that the more directly photography refers to painting,
the greater its meaning?
A deliberate over simplification in the above questions conceals a
misunderstanding of photography's function that occurs continually: the
belief that photography, because it is created with a "mechanical"
technique, should in some way be subordinate to painting; and that
Directors of Photography should constantly draw their inspiration from
that same painting.
I believe, instead, that cineastes in general, and this includes Directors of
Photography, should draw the inspiration for their very responsible task
of creating Cinema, from life.
The various kinds of light and different atmospheres one can perceive in
real life, have already been interpreted in painting. Attempting to
reproduce the effect created by a painter, in a vain attempt to give a film
some class with in arty touch, can be dangerous, for three reasons:
Firstly, because, at the most, you are only copying another's creation, even
if it might earn you a lot of praise.
Secondly, because you are proposing an image that is false, in the sense
that it is based on one that has already been created.
Thirdly, because you deny your eyes the possibility of seeing and
studying the life around you, and yourself the possibility of
communicating it by interpreting it according to your particular
sensitivity; therefore, probably failing in the species of moral obligation,
prior to your professional commitment, that is implied in choosing to
create Cinema.
Cinema that is a documentation, even if profoundly elaborated, of real life.
It is enough to have the chance to frequent a few painters, using different
L'eccessivo e volontario
semplicismo delle domande
nasconde un ricorrente
equivoco: che la fotografia debba
essere in qualche misura schiava
della pittura in quanto più
meccanica, e che dalla pittura i
direttori della fotografia debbano
trarre costante ispirazione.
Credo piuttosto che i cineasti in
genere, e fra questi anche i
direttori della fotografia, nello
styles and each with their own particular value, to realize that, asfar as
they are concerned, the above situation is reversed, and the Cinema is,
fact, very important to them, especially as regards the pure
cinematographic image. Many painters even find the wealth of "trompe
I'oeil" images used inT.V. commercials very stimulating.
Besides this, a great number of painters work with a camera, before they
even pick up a brush!
So, let's not feel inferior.
Well, am I perhaps trying to say that Directors of Photography should
show no interest in painting and cultivate their ignorance?
Certainly not Instead, I believe that they should frequent museums,
galleries and exhibitions assiduously as, determining the differences, the
particular qualities — the "specifics", as they were once called — of the
various expressive forms, is a stimulating intellectual adventure that
surprises you at every turn, and, it is precisely through determining these
somewhat "démodé" specifics that you can possibly avoid
misunderstandings which, in truth, are banalities and, therefore,
widespread, and which, unfortunately, are fostered by critics and public
alike.
A plethora of socalled "pictorial" effects will often be mistakenly
acclaimed by the majority as extraordinarily beautiful photography. And
even though the content of the film might be obscured by this visual
embellishment, employed in the name of instant success, very few people
will actually be aware of this
In the name of the above principles, which I consider sacrosanct, I
recently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. While I was
wandering through the various "rooms", past collections that, apart from
individual works that are often of enormous value, generally reflect the