CADETS — PAOLO VERZONE
curated by Enrico Stefanelli
Elegant, austere, disciplined, proud. The portraits of Paolo Verzone’s cadets could have been taken decades ago. It is a bit like if in Military Academies time had stood still, following the same rigid rules for hundreds of years.
A characteristic of the photographs of Verzone is their apparent simplicity of realization and composition, although this is far from being true.
First of all, even after the necessary authorizations are obtained, the photographer, or his subjects, need to follow many other rules: the rigid rules of the Academy which are obviously, almost always incompatible with the photographer’s needs.
The other aspect is the time that his subjects can actually dedicate to him, which is very little. But Paolo is now an expert on this and a very capable photographer, having portrayed, over the years, many politicians like the candidates to the latest presidential elections in France.
And eventually light, which Paolo knows deeply. He is able to guide it, divert it, model it and use it for his needs as if it was pure matter.
His sensitivity does the rest, giving us portrays of great impact. The photos on exhibit are part of a long project, over 4 years long, which became a book published by Editions de la Martinière which won the third prize in the portrait category of World Press Photo nel 2015.The photographs on exhibition were selected especially for this edition of Photolux, choosing the portraits of cadets of Military Academies around the Mediterranean.
Enrico Stefanelli
