“You don’t take a picture,
you give a picture
(...) the picture is always inside of you.”
_ PAOLO ROVERSI
Presenting artworks by renowned fasion photographer Paolo Roversi (b.1947, Ravenna). Working directly with the studio in Paris, we selected images from 1988 to 2017 including shots for Vogue, Dior and Comme des Garçons, with many exhibited at international museums and art fairs.
Whether made with his trademark Deardorff 8 x 10 camera and Polaroid film or as carbon prints, Roversi’s photographs eloquently bridge the spheres of commercial photography and fine art. His timeless work, admired for its ethereal lighting and shadows, fuses delicacy and strength.
CONTEXT
Paolo Roversi moved to Paris in 1973 and began forging his reputation in the ‘80s, developing his own photographic language that became instantly recognisable. His aesthetic evolved from a distinctive approach: using a 20×25 format Polaroid alongside references that draw on Roman and Byzantine art, a nod to his youth in Ravenna.
The recognisable soft focus in Roversi’s photographs recalls the origins of fashion photography, whilst embracing movement, accidents and the unexpected. Model, dress, form and background fuse. Elements in the composition radiate light, evoking a realm beyond time and place.
“Mystery, secrets and accidents are the main ingredients of my work.”
PROCESS
The photographs are available in varying sizes and techniques from highly textured Carbon prints to high-gloss chromogenic prints, silver gelatin, platinum and original unique Polaroids.
Carbon printing is a complex traditional process requiring special conditions, paper and expertise. With only 2 studios in the world still making them, Roversi describes his printer in Seattle as “a magician”.
“Photography reveals especially what isn’t there - it shows the invisible.”
_ PAOLO ROVERSI
RECOGNITION
Roversi’s work has been exhibited internationally, including: Palais Galliera, Paris (2024); Museo d’Arte della città diRavenna, Italy’ (2021); Dallas Contemporary, Texas (2020); Shanghai Centre of Photography (2020) ; C/O Berlin (2016); ICP, New York (2009).
His work is held in the collections of: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; TheMuseum of Modern Art, New York; National Portrait Gallery, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Roversi was invited to produce the prestigious Pirelli Calendar in 2020, and has published more than 10 books.
He has led advertising campaigns for: Cerruti, Comme des Garçons, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent and Valentino. And has been published in: Harper’s Bazaar, I-D,Interview, Marie-Claire, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, W, and more.
Roversi works almost exclusively in his studio, ‘Studio Luce’, in Paris. The raw nature of the space – a wooden floor and grey curtain – contrasts markedly with his sophisticated aesthetic. He describes: “The studio is a small stage where anything can happen […] It is stunning how naturally the real, surreal and fantastic all mesh here; image and imagination meet and unfold.”
“I […] subtract until you have something pure left. A kind of abandon, a kind of absence. It looks like an absence, but […] the interior beauty comes out.”
_ PAOLO ROVERSI
