Description

Mountain territories have historically been embedded in an old quest for the sublime, capturing the imagination of painters, poets and photographers alike: from Leonardo da Vinci depiction of the Grigne massif to Robert Capa’s images of the Swiss Alps. Against this backdrop, Alpine iconography might already seem complete making it challenging to provide a fresh look at this world of heights.

Equipped with the same dare and determination of his war coverage, Magnum Photographer Paolo Pellegrin plunged into the mountains of Aosta Valley in Italy. His black and white photographs depict the soaring peaks, deep gorges and snow-covered surfaces that characterize this enchanting landscape while also providing a glimpse at the signs of a warming world.

I'm more interested in a photography that is 'unfinished' - a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in

Paolo Pellegrin
© Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos

Paolo Pellegrin was born in 1964 in Rome. He studied architecture at L’Università la Sapienza, Rome, before studying photography at L’istituto Italiano di Fotografia.

Between 1991 and 2001 Pellegrin was represented by Agence VU in Paris. He was a contract photographer for Newsweek for ten years. Pellegrin is one of the world’s leading photojournalists who has documented many of this generation’s major disasters and conflicts, from revolutions to wars to tsunamis.

Pellegrin wishes his work to “create a bridge...to use photography to say something that goes beyond the surface, that vibrates, that resonates.” This approach has lead him to photograph in Lebanon, Iran, Palestine, Romania, Afghanistan, Libya, Cuba, the United States, Mali, Egypt, Algeria, Haiti, Tunisia, and Indonesia.

In 2001 he became a Magnum Photos nominee and a full member in 2005.

© Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos

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