Emidio Luisi (Sacco, Italy 1948)
Photographer.
He began his career in 1978 as a photojournalist for the Diário do Grande ABC in São Paulo, where he settled after coming from Italy, his native country. From the 1980s on, he concentrated his work on two basic strands: theater photography and ethnographic documentaries on various areas of the city of São Paulo. In 1985, he worked as a photographer for the magazine Veja. Between 1980 and 1997, he held sixteen different solo exhibitions in São Paulo and also took part in more than thirty group shows or salons, both in Brazil and abroad. His images were included in the books Ballet Stagium, Imagens do Teatro Paulista [Images of São Paulo Theater] and São Paulo Gigante Intimista [São Paulo, Intimate Giant], all from 1985; Máscaras [Masks], 1986; Imagens da Dança em São Paulo [Images of Dance in São Paulo] and Festas Populares no Brasil [Popular Festivals in Brazil], both from 1987; Árvores do Brasil [Trees of Brazil] and São Paulo: Múltipla Metrópole [São Paulo: Multiple Metropolis], both from 1989; O Brasil Descobre a Dança, a Dança Descobre o Brasil [Brazil Discovers Dance, Dance Discovers Brazil] (1994) and Uê Paizá, 1997.
Critiques
"Emídio, if he were not a photographer, could be a visual artist. He sees visually. A painter in black and white. The one of sober pictures, the one of surrealist pictures: simple compositions, daring compositions. Images that follow movement and imprison it in a solid and fragile balance, one step (or one leap) away from dynamic, harmonious imbalance.
Photographs - surrealist pictures made of the black mass of amalgamated bodies, of luminous, suspended elements. Only the choreographer, only the photographer can achieve a fusion of the body molded in black with the black background; they are the ones who make faces and arms detach from bodies and become loose fragments floating in the air, luminous patches.
... Emídio's photography hypnotizes with its beauty. Creative, it leads the viewer to question photographic spaces and times. Images, discontinuous visions, fragments of space, fractions of frozen time. Images made of the continuous times that flow, invisible: that of 'before', that of 'after', memory and imagination. The photographer's, the viewer's".
Stefania Bril
Catálogo Ballet Stagium - 25 Anos, 1995
"The point of contact between the choreographer and the audience has been solely the dancer, his interpreter. But Emidio Luisi's photography emerges as another secure link, in the precise translation it achieves of something as fluid as an intention of movement with meaning..."
Helena Katz
Catálogo Ballet Stagium - 25 Anos, 1995
"For more than ten years Emidio Luisi has photographed dance performances, using the drama that light and movement impose on the scene. His decisive moments, recorded with the precision of an attentive and experienced eye, are essential for understanding the scenic space, but they do not record the imponderable, since the fragment is inseparable from an aesthetically preconceived whole".
Rubens Fernandes Junior
Catálogo Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias, São Paulo, 7ª edição, 1997
Testimonials
"There are some tendencies I develop in my personal work, such as stage, ethnophotography and personal essays. I am open to all tendencies in photography, as long as there is a constant concern with language and quality".
Emidio Luisi
Collections
Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection] - São Paulo SP
Group Exhibitions
1976 - São Paulo SP - Bienal Nacional [National Biennial]
1979 - São Paulo SP - Novos Caminhos da Arte Fantástica [New Paths of Fantastic Art], at Paço das Artes
1980 - São Paulo SP - 1ª Trienal de Fotografia [1st Photography Triennial], at MAM/SP
1980 - Austin (United States) - Art and Music of Latin America
1980 - São Paulo SP - 10 Anos de Dança - Ballet Stagium [10 Years of Dance - Ballet Stagium], at Galeria Imagem Ação
1981 - São Paulo SP - Palco [Stage], at Museu da Imagem e do Som
1981 - São Paulo SP - Folguedos [Folk Festivities], at Gabinete de Fotografia da Pinacoteca do Estado
1981 - São Paulo SP - 2º Salão Paulista de Artes Visuais [2nd São Paulo Visual Arts Salon], at Paço das Artes
1982 - Rio Claro SP - 3º Salão de Artes Plásticas e Visuais [3rd Salon of Plastic and Visual Arts] - acquisition prize
1983 - Genoa (Italy) - Avio de uma Pesquisa Urbana - Bixiga [Start of an Urban Research - Bixiga]
1983 - Paris (France) - Brésil des Brésiliens, at Centre Georges Pompidou
1983 - São Paulo SP - Feira de Cultura Brasileira [Brazilian Culture Fair], at MIS/SP
1984 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo, Gigante Intimista [São Paulo, Intimate Giant], at CCSP
1984 - São Paulo SP - Elis, at Salão Fuji
1984 - São Paulo SP - 4x4 - Quatro Fotógrafos, Quatro Temas [4x4 - Four Photographers, Four Themes], at Salão Fuji
1984 - São Paulo SP - Ballet Stagium/Praça da Sé, at Galeria Fotóptica
1984 - São Paulo SP - São Paulo Dança [São Paulo Dances], at Galeria Funarte
1984 - São Paulo SP - Fotojornalismo Retrata São Paulo [Photojournalism Portrays São Paulo], at Masp
1984 - Havana (Cuba) - 3º Colóquio Latino-Americano de Fotografia [3rd Latin American Photography Colloquium]
1985 - São Paulo SP - Auto-Retrato Brasileiro - Cidade [Brazilian Self-Portrait - City], at Bienal Internacional de São Paulo
1985 - São Paulo SP - Fotógrafos Ítalo-Brasileiros [Italian-Brazilian Photographers], at CCSP
1986 - Yugoslavia - 8ª Triennale International
1986 - New York (United States) - The City of São Paulo, at Brazilian American Cultural Institute
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1ª Mostra de Audiovisuais [1st Audiovisual Exhibition], at Funarte
1987 - São Paulo SP - Lançamento Audiovisual no Ar [Launch of the Audiovisual no Ar], at Galeria Fotóptica
1988 - São Paulo SP - Revista Veja - 20 Anos de Fotojornalismo [Veja Magazine - 20 Years of Photojournalism], at Sindicato dos Jornalistas
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brasil, Cenários e Personagens [Brazil, Settings and Characters], at Funarte
1989 - São Paulo SP - Musas Inquietantes [Disquieting Muses], at Sadalla Galeria de Arte
1990 - São Paulo SP - Fotojornalistas Brasileiros [Brazilian Photojournalists], at MIS/SP
1990 - São Paulo SP - Fotojornalismo Revista Goodyear [Goodyear Magazine Photojournalism], at Galeria Fotóptica
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Fotógrafos da Região Sudeste [Photographers of the Southeast Region], at Funarte
1991 - São Paulo SP - Lapa - Capital do Mundo [Lapa - Capital of the World], at Tendal da Lapa
1991 - São Paulo SP - Revele o Tietê que Você Vê [Reveal the Tietê You See], at União dos Fotógrafos
1992 - São Paulo SP - Uso da Fotografia na Decoração [Use of Photography in Decoration], at Galeria Fotóptica
1992 - São Paulo SP - Movimentos de Dança [Dance Movements], at Sesc Consolação
1992 - São Paulo SP - Lançamento Cartões-Postais Musas Inquietantes [Launch of the Disquieting Muses Postcards], at Galeria Fotóptica
1992 - São Paulo SP - Ipiranga, Retratos e Relatos [Ipiranga, Portraits and Accounts], at Sesc Ipiranga
1993 - São Paulo SP - 2º Leilão de Fotografias [2nd Photography Auction], at Associação de Jornalistas da Imagem - AJI
1993 - São Paulo SP - Mês Internacional da Fotografia - NAFoto [International Month of Photography - NAFoto]
1993 - São Paulo SP - Fotograma 10 Anos [Fotograma 10 Years], at Salão Fuji
1993 - Salvador BA - 2º Salão Nacional da Arte Fotográfica [2nd National Salon of Photographic Art]
1994 - São Paulo SP - Luzes da Misericórdia [Lights of Mercy], at Santa Casa da Misericórdia
1995 - São Paulo SP - Investigação Brasil [Brazil Investigation], at Centro Cultural São Paulo
1995 - São Paulo SP - A Grafia da Dança [The Writing of Dance], at Senac Santana
1995 - São Paulo SP - Stagium 25 Anos [Stagium 25 Years], at MIS/SP
1995 - São Paulo SP - 2º Mês Internacional da Fotografia - NAFoto [2nd International Month of Photography - NAFoto]
1996 - São Paulo SP - Desenhos da Dança [Drawings of Dance], produced by AS Studio
1996 - São Paulo SP - Leilão de Fotografias - Abrinq [Photography Auction - Abrinq]
1996 - Curitiba PR - Brasil, Mostra Tua Cara - 1ª Bienal Internacional de Fotografia [Brazil, Show Your Face - 1st International Photography Biennial]
1996 - São Paulo SP - Brasil Dança Lyon, at Sesc
1997 - São Paulo SP - 7º Coleção Pirelli/Masp de Fotografias [7th Pirelli/Masp Photography Collection], at Masp
1997 - São Paulo SP - Uê Paizá, at Espaço Livre da Caixa Econômica Federal
Source: Itaú Cultural
