The Magic of the “Photographer with the Brush” Tarot
Pino Settanni, The Tarot - Queen of Cups - Valentina Chigo I Photo: © Pino Settanni / Archivio Luce Cinecittà
The I tarocchi (The Tarot) exhibition at the Stanze della Fotografia, a place dedicated to the international protagonists of photography, is created by Archivio Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with Le Stanze della Fotografia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Marsilio Arte. Among the numerous and diverse works of Pino Settanni (1949 - 2010), one of the most original, lively and versatile authors of contemporary photography, the photographic series of tarot cards (1994), the famous cards of the European tradition, constitutes a surprising and poetic alchemical mix inspired by the reading of The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino in tribute to the painting of Caravaggio, a constant iconographic reference of the photographer. An unprecedented work, the one staged by Settanni who for the first time photographs the tarot figures with human features. The work is the result of six months of daily work in the photographer's studio preceded by an accurate analysis of the pictorial genre dedicated to playing cards, for example in the art of Dürer and Brueghel the Elder, and reveals one of the salient features of Settanni's research, namely the breaking down of the boundaries between photography, painting and cinema.