One take, one frame, one camera: Leica CL Hybrid Wide Tony Graffio

Is the Leica CL a real Leica? This is not a problem for me. I like Leica cameras, but I'm not a maniac of this brand, they are just a little bit too expensive for me, expecially in these days many people is looking for Leitz lens to mount them on the new digital Leicas. Years ago, I owned a very nice Leica M4 with a Summicron f 2, the results were stunning, but I was used to my Nikon F2 so, after a while, I sold the M4 thinking to break-up definitively my relationship with the german red dot. 

Not so much time ago, I would say 2 years, I bought an old Leicaflex SL, later another, and then an older Leicaflex, because the R series was not so wanted. Just in time, because since a few months also the Leicaflex and the R series lens began to be more appreciated and expensive...

Last march I went to the Castel San Giovanni second hand photographic market and when I found a Leica CL at 130 euros I decided to buy it also if the lightmeter was not working and there was not any lens on the camera body. 

Good move. The lightmeter problem was not so serious, the CL just needed to sobstitute an oxidized cable and very quickly became ready to take some pictures again. 

Then, the problem was: where to find a lens at a reasonable price? 

I was not in the mood to spend around 2'000 euros for a 21mm or any other original focal lenght so I understood I had not to watch on a Leitz product. I started to think at a few alternative options. I compared the Cosina/Voigtlander to the Zeiss and other lens with an M mount and I realized that Nikon wide angles could be not worse than those makes, and not even slower.

I started to look after lens adapter and I decided to find something that could allow me to mount a Nikon on my Leica/Minolta CL.

This Hybrid Camera is a Leica/Minolta rangefinder camera Leica M Mount with a Nikkor AIS mm 20 f 2,8, a Cambo Wide 650 Viewfinder and a no brand lens hood

I know it is a unusual choice, everybody would like to take advantage of the Leitz optical quality, but I wanted to put together a small light camera with what I already had. I had only to look for the right adapter, I already owned all the rest of the gear. Of course, I could mount every kind of Nikon lens on my solution, but not having the possibilty to focus precisely meant to be forced to mount a very wide lens on the CL. The good new is that the compact Leica/Minolta has an internal cell that enables the TTL metering system to work also with a lens adapter and a manual diaphragm lens, like the Nikon AIS.

 The Bovisa old gasometer photographed with my Hybrid solution. Fujifilm Fujicolor 200 E.I. 1/500 sec. f 11

The entrance in the AEM area where rise the old gasometers is forbidden to the public. So, I guess, I introduced myself illegally in this place to document what happened, what kind of works were made and what is the actual situation. 

I needed to have my hands free to cut the wild vegetation and to have a small and light camera with me, in the case I had to runaway quickly.

Camera was already mounted with the adapter and the 20mm in a small bag. In another pocket of the bag I kept the lens hood and the Cambo viewfinder. To take the pictures I had to take off the lens cap, mount the lens hood, mount the  cambo wide angle viewfinder, focus at a quite closed aperture, expose the scene with the internal meter, compose the image and shoot the picture.

Leicaist Nik-L/M lens adapter

I don't like anymore buiyng online on the web, so I searched a shop in Milan where to find any make of lens adapter.

Nobody had it, so I went by my trusted chinese bazaar to explain what I needed.

 Federica, more than a chinese seller, a property master

Federica already had been able to find for me an adapter in China for a Pentax Q to any D mount (8 mm cine cameras) lens, so I asked again to her to solve my problem. I've been lucky because she already had to make a journey to Shanghai and she looked for it directly in her hometown. 
A couple of weeks later she came back with my adapter, 100% Made in China. 

Thanks Federica and thanks to the industrious wise chinese people that build in their old and big country what we lazy italian people don't want to make anymore. I payed the Leicaist adapter 43 euros.

Tony Graffio's Leica CL Wide Hybrid, a Nippo-German-Dutch- Chinese camera.

Caméras vielles et glorieuses: la Pathé Baby 9,5 mm

Le cinématographe dans toutes les familles

Introduit en 1921 comme un format cinématographique économique pour voir des films commerciales à la maison, le Pathé Baby, l'année suivante, devient aussi une pellicule pour prendre des scènes familieres, ou bien des souvenirs d'amateurs.

Ses caracteristics sont une largeur de 9,5mm et simples trous d'entraînement situez au milieu de la pellicule, entre les cadres.

Si d'une part la perforation centrale permet de façon très intelligente de tirer la meilleure partie du cadre, de l'autre est aussi la principale limite de ce format. Malheureusement, le centre du cadre est toujours sujet aux rayures en raison du plus petit problème de mâchoire traînant si on utilisent de projecteurs de mauvaise qualité.

Le format 9,5 mm utilisait une seule perforation centrale entre chaque paire d'images permettant d'avoir plus d'espaces sur le film pour le cadre impressioné.

Regardez le film d'Umberto Ricchetti, le grand père de Matteo, restaurée par M.R.

(Courtoisie Matteo Ricchetti)

Comparaison de quatre formats cinématographiques: 16mm; 9,5mm, Super 8 et 8mm.

Le 9,5 mm est né en France dans l'Établissement Pathé de Joinville, Paris. Ce format a eu une bonne diffusion en France, Allemagne, Royaume-Uni et États-Unis, mais il n'a jamais obtenu de grands succès en Italie, bien que certains types de films sont encore disponibles (chez Colour City en France). Les rares utilisateurs de ce type de film ne sont que peu d'amateurs. Il y a des clubs en France, en Espagne, en Angleterre et même dans les États-Unis. Au moment de sa propagation, et jusqu'au début des années trente, ce type de film a été souvent utilisé comme un format pour des projections dans des lieux privés ou dans des clubs. Nombreux films célèbres ont été réimprimés dans ce format.

Le système de projection incorporait un moyen pour sauver des mètres de pellicule pour le parties non mobiles comme les titres. Une encoche dans le film était reconnue par le projecteur qui savait alors projeter la seconde trame après 10 secondes. Par cette méthode, 10 secondes de temps d'écran est disponible pour la première image du film, plutôt que les 140 cadres nécessaires si le film a été projeté à la vitesse normale. Le même principe a été utilisé par le système «Agfa Family», une caméra Super 8 et le projecteur en 1981, mais pour fournir des images plutôt que des titres.

 Pour raisons de sécurité, Pathé Baby 9,5mm utilisait film de sécurité avec une base d'acétate de cellulose, à difference du 35mm qui était fabriqué en nitrate de cellulose.
(Courtoisie Matteo Ricchetti)

L'interieur d'une caméra Pathé Baby.
(Courtoisie Matteo Ricchetti)

Le couloir du film.

(Courtoisie Matteo Ricchetti)

Raccomandazioni importanti (reinsegnements importants).

(Courtoisie Matteo Ricchetti)

Cette caméra et beaucoup de photos dans ce service de "Ortodossia Fotografica" ont été fournies par Matteo Ricchetti qui a construi un formidable télécinéma multiformat (voir la page en italien sur "Frammenti di Cultura").

Une autre camérà Pathé Baby. Cette fois mise à disposition par Felice Quaquarella et son Musée Privé du Cinéma Amateur.

Cette Pathé Baby est vraiment un bébé. (Courtoisie F.Q.)

Après la guerre Les Établissements Continsouza s'établissent in

403 rue des Pyrénées à Paris, mais Continsouza décide d'acheter

le site de l'usine de La Marque à Tulle, pour y produire des appareils

de cinéma Pathé, des machines à écrire Contin ainsi que des pièces

de bicyclette. A l'Usine de La Marque seront produit des systèmes

Pathé Baby au format de 9,5mm.

Les projecteurs Pathé Baby seront mis sur le marché à Noël 1922.

Ce site sera productif jusqu'en 1925,

Continsouza revendra les bâtiments en 1927.

(Courtoisie F.Q.)

Le livret d'istruction de la caméra Pathé Baby en langue italienne.

(Courtoisie F.Q.)

Une rare coupeuse pour le 9,5mm 

(Courtoisie Felice Quacquarella).

Informations recueillies sur le Web et grâce aux collectionneurs indiqués dans cette page: M.R. et F.Q.

Corinne Héraud, le pelliculage à jet d'encre et ses séries artistiques

Corinne Héraud est née en France, dans un petite ville près de Lyon en 1971. Elle a d'abord travaillé dans des univers éloignés de la photographie (attachée de presse dans une agence de marketing et monitrice d'équitation) et a commencé a photographer à 30 ans avec une des prèmieres reflex numérique: la Fuji S1 Pro. Avec cette camera Corinne apprende les bases de la technique (vitesses, diafragmes, profondeur de champ) et tout ce qu'il faut savoir pour la prise de vues. Parallèlement graâce à un ami qui lui offre un viel agrandisseur 24X36 elle s'initie aussi à la photo argéntique. Elle découvre ensuite le travail à la chambre 4x5 et se passionne pour le pelliculage de Polaroid.
Aujourd'hui Corinne mélange du numérique avec du Polaroid et ne s'interdit aucune technique. L'idée qui la guide dans sa démarche artistique est la grande richesse des possibilités d'expression creative offertes par la photographie.
Corinne a acheté et stocké beaucoup de films Polaroid pour son usage personnelle.
Sa technique de pelliculage à jet d'encre est unique. J'ai réncontré cette artiste en avril 2016 au MIA Photo Fair de Milan. TG

Tony Graffio: Bonjour Corinne, pouvez vous dire quelque chose de vous et de votre experience professionnelle?

Corinne Héraud: D'accord. En termes d'experience professionnelle je suis autodidacte, je n'ai aucune formation artistique et maintenant cela fait une dizaine d'année que je travaille avec la photographie. Il y a duex choses qui sont très important dans ma façon de travailler. Premièrement j'utilise des procedés alternatifs avec l'idée de produire une photographie dans laquelle il se passe des choses, des accidents. Pour cela je peux travailler à partir de photographies numériques ou de Polaroïd périmés mais je mets toujours en œuvre une technique aléatoire pour le «tirage». Par exemple, sur la série des "Auras", la base est un mélange de numérique et de Polaroïd et j'ai réalisé les «tirages» avec des transferts de pigments sur du papier aquarelle. Le principe est d'apporter une touche manuelle sur chaque tirage de façon à ce que chaque image devienne une œuvre unique. C'est une chose primordiale dans ma démarche d'artiste. 
La seconde chose importante est que je travaille à partir de portraits pris sur l'écran de ma télévision. Je m'intéresse aux figurants des talks-shows, les personnes qui sont derrière les invités ou les présentateurs, les anonymes qui servent de tapisserie vivante pour animer le background. Il m'arrive de travailler avec des sujets masculins, mais il est vrai que je me concentre beaucoup sur les femmes. Ce qui m'intéresse dans cette démarche c'est de travailler sur cette espèce d'ambiguïté entre une image télévisée qui n'a pas beaucoup de sens, qui est vouée à disparaître et l'œuvre finale sur laquelle je passe beaucoup de temps avec mes procédés manuels. Je prends un plaisir fou à «anoblir» ces portraits satellisés au sens propre du terme. Lentement, avec patience je redonne une certaine éternité à ces images qui, à la base, ne sont vouées à rien.

Corinne Héraud et sa prèmiere série de photos: Auras

TG: Quelles sont le duex séries que vous présentez ici à Milan?

CH: La première s'appelle les "Icônes cathodiques". C'est une série en noir et blanc qui marque vraiment le début de ce travail avec les portraits télévisuels. C'est une série que j'ai débutée en 2009, il y donc déjà quelques années. J'ai employé une technique que j'appelle le pelliculage jet d'encre, c'est à dire que je réalise un tirage que je trempe dans un solvant de façon à décoller l'émulsion du papier que je replace ensuite sur un autre support. C'est inspiré de ce que l'on faisait avec la Polaroid parce que dans un premier temps, j'ai beaucoup travaillé avec les Polaroids et notamment avec les pelliculages que j'adorai. C'est d'ailleurs grâce aux Polaroids que je suis venue à la photographie plasticienne et artistique. Lorsque Polaroid a cessé de produire, je me suis mise en quête de procédés qui pourraient me permettre de retrouver cette technique. Depuis je suis sans cesse en train de chercher des idées, des techniques et des medium nouveaux.

TG: Il a fallu faire beaucoup d'experimentations?

CH: Eh oui, absolument. Ma technique ne fonctionne qu'avec un seul papier et pour le trouver j'en ai essayé 30 ou 40 différents ! C'était un gros investissement et, enfin, j'ai trouvé ce papier qui me permet de le faire, voilà ! Ça été un grand bonheur pour moi parce que j'ai retrouvé ce plaisir de décoller l'émulsion, comme autrefois avec les Polaroids. En plus, le résultat est très aléatoire avec des effets de craquelures liés au temps de séchage, à l'humidité et à la chaleur au moment du tirage.

TG: Après il faut coller l'émulsion sur un autre papier?

CH: Avec le solvant j'obtiens une espèce de peau est très fine, très fragile que je récupère sur un papier japonais. C'est au moment du séchage que les rétractations, les plis et les craquelures apparaissent. Ensuite, je colle ce papier japonais sur un autre support rigide. Pour les Icônes Cathodiques je les colle sur du bois.

TG: Très interessant. Vous partez d'un negative?

CH: Non, a la base c'est un photo numerique de mon écran de télé prise avec un appareil qui n'a pas beaucou d'intérêt, quasi bas de gamme. Je m'interesse qu'à saisir grosso modo un visage, une silhouette, un peu de lumière, beaucoup de noirs et blancs, du flou pour créer quelque chose qui soit quasi universel. Je veux rester en <surface>. Ensuite, je fais un gros travail sur cette photographie brute pour amener les visage dans mon univers.

TG: Quel genre de tirage vous réalisez?

CH: Je fais un tirage noir et blanc avec une imprimante grand format à jet d'encre sur mon papier spécial qu'ensuite je trempe dans le solvent. C'est ce fameux papier qui a la particularité d'avoir l'emulsion que se décolle dans le solvent.

TG: Savez vous s'il y a quelcun d'autre qui pratique cette technique?

CH: Sincerement, je crois pas. En tout cas, je n'ai jamais croisé qualcun qui pratiquait cette technique, mais ce n'est pas un situation très confortable car je suis tributaire d'un papiers qui n'est pas fabriqué pour cette usage artistique et le moindre changement dans l'émulsion (Ce que m'est déjà arrivé chez mon fornisseur) peux avoir un énorme impact sur le resultat voire même rendre impossible ma technique. Et comme je suis la seule à l'utiliser avec cette fonction-là, je suis un peu prisonniére. Mais si un jourcela ne fonctionne plus, alors, ce ne sera pas très grave car je me remettrai à cercher autre chose!


TG: L'image obtenu dans cette façon est bien stable dans le temps?

CH: Oui, absolument. Mes tirages sont realisées avec des imprimantes professionnelle Epson et des encres pigmentaires, exactement comme celles utilisées puor le tirage vendus de façon générale sur le marché de l'art. De plus, j'ajoute En plus, j'ajoute de l'acrylique et des vernis. Mes tirage sont donc très protegées du temps qui passe et des UV.

A gauche les Icônes Cathodiques de Corinne Héraud

TG: Et pour les "Auras", comment vous  réalisez la couleur?

CH: Pour les Auras je travaille la couleur avec Photoshop, c'est donc un traitement numérique. Techniquement il s'agit d'un tirage dont je trasfère les pigments sur un autre support, en l'occurrence du papier aquarelle. Avec ce procédé assez aléatoir aussi il peut avoir de <défauts> et c'est ce qui m'interesse a y beaucoup d'imperfections et c'est pour ça que m'interesse. Ce n'est pas un tirage qui sort diréctemente d'une imprimante et les relatives imperfections qu'on obtient partecipent à la vie des visages qui sont proposés.

TG: Est-ce que la couleur est la seule difference entre les deux séries? Ou même les soujets?

CH: C'est surtout le temps qui est passé depuis 2009. Cela correspond à une évolution personnelle avec le besoin qui s'est fait sentir de travailler avec la couler. J'ai beaucoup tâtonné pour trouver la façon de la faire intervenir dans mon travail mais aujourd'hui je le révendique enfin! Les Auras ne sont pas forcément plus <légérs> que les Icônes Cathodiques, mais Ia couleur est là!

Su Frammenti di Cultura troverete la versione italiana dell'intervista a Corinne Héraud

Tous les droits sont réservé

   

Carline poses for Orpho

If you love visual arts and culture you know "Frammenti di Cultura", Tony Graffio's information website in italian language. If you read Orpho, Ortodoxia Photographica, the international website about photography and cinematography, you already know in these pages you can find news, reportages, curiosities, interviews, reviews of old cameras, tests  and rare images. 

Only for the real lovers of films, ancient technics and insiders.

Wonderful Carline shows the "Ortodossia Fotografica" shopper, a gadget that Tony Graffio gives for free to the friends who will find him in Milan.

Carline is a brazilian model who loves Tony Graffio's T shirts, shoppers and gadgets and is very happy to pose in this old abandoned silver workshop referred to an old "Frammenti di Cultura" post.

An old Photo Shop in Genoa

The old city centre of Genoa is one of the most beatiful places you can find in Italy, also because is a very lively and colourful area fully populated by all kind of people ready to riot against the injustices of a system that impose always more restrictions to the freedom and to the dignity of the individuals.

Recently, I went to to Genoa to visit a couple of exhibitions of which I wrote on "Frammenti di Cultura"; as usual I took a walk in the Prè discrtict, in spite a few people advised me of the danger of that place. 

Cine Foto Ottica Radio Transistors. An old photogapher closed shop in Genoa

Since the '80s Genova is a city that suffers of the reduction of the exchange of the goods in its harbour; later on also many industries have closed. The overall atmosphere is that of a city in deay because many buildigs were no longer mainteined, but also this environment can be interesting for a pictures hunter.

A photografer shop sign of the '50s in Genoa. Cine Foto Ottica Radio a Transistors

I don't know much of the photographer shop in these images, but I think it could be closed since a long time.

The font of this photo shop is quite rare to find in nowadays. TG

Chernobyl 30 years after the nuclear disater An italian photographer on the site

"I believe that the Chernobyl disaster should be seen as the main cause of the fall of the Soviet Union." Tony Graffio

Paolo A. Restelli, author of the photo reportage I'm going to introduce you, went to visit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after 30 years by the leakage of the radioactive cloud, because this is the half-life of the radioactive isotope derived as a byproduct of  uranium nuclear fission that powered the nuclear reactor of the central Lenin.

It's particularly significant to analyze what is happening in these days in Ukraine, which has run the country that became independent from the former Soviet Union in 1990 and has bad relations with Russia. The entire continent is very worried, considering the fact that it is essential that there is always an effective dialogue between Europe, Ukraine and Russia in order to carry out the appropriate checks and to realize the  necessary maintenance work for a containment structure of the radiations.

Photographing with little time available in a unknown risky place, in hardly favorable conditions it is not easy, despite this, Restelli did a great job.

Pripyat kindergarten 

A very sad picture that makes us understand how was the life before the disaster and makes us reflect on how many innocent children could not grow up and live a normal peaceful life for the madness of the adults.

Inside of Pripyat hospital, surgery room.

This is one of the most dangerous places in the city of Pripyat.

Here the first liquidators were hospitalized. The clothes of the liquidators were stored in the basement that has become so one of the most radioactive areas in the world, where you measure 400 microsieverts.

Chernobyl area map

Pripyat ferris wheel

Pripyat ferris wheel had to be inaugurated on May 1st, 1986 but of course, no one has been able to use it and then the amusement park takes on a sinister meaning seen to our days. How the Soviets could imagine to bring their children to play close to a nuclear power plant?

Springtime in Chernobyl

Paolo Angelo Restelli took these pictures on april the 13th and 14th 2016.

A flat in Pripyat. A sofa in an interior  

Despite the danger, many displaced people have returned illegally in their homes to regain possession of their property and their furnishings. Later other people have come to Pripyat to remove the heaters from the palaces and other metals, in order to resell them. These people have been detained by security forces. Other individuals have stolen abandoned cars, but they have not had occasion to use them for a few kilometers, as these thieves were found dead inside the cars, just outside the exclusion zone. The cars were radioactive in the order of 60 Sievert.

Overview of Pripyat seen from the terrace of a building of 16 floors that Paul A. Restelli reached on foot.

Abandoned gas masks in the school of Pripyat

At the time of the Cold War in the Soviet Union everybody had to have a gas mask to defend himself/herself from a nuclear attack (although in this case  it would be useless). The school of Pripyat was attended by about 2,000 / 2,500 pupils.

Radiation dosage chart

I want you for the Soviet Red Army!

An old Soviet image that asks to the young people to join the Red Army of the USSR. It is the Soviet equivalent of the American Uncle Sam saying: "I want you!".

Another radiation dose chart

Zalissya. Rosalia Ivanovna's house

Zalissya is a dead village which is no longer in the maps. In this house, in december 2015, died the elderly former teacher at the age of 84.

Duga, "the Russian woodpecker"

The village of the Duga was called Chernobyl 2 and did not appear on any map. The Russians have always maintained that those iron pylons that make up the radar scanner, which being built 400 meters long and 170 high, at more than km 10 away furthermore are clearly visible, were the frame of a roller coaster of an entertainment park for children. To get there there was a straight long way of km 8. Within the Duga radar station there were buildings, shops, offices and all that was to outline the life of the soldiers and their families who lived there. It is not known precisely how many people inhabited that village because that is something that has always been kept secret. The Duga was a radar they called "the Russian Woodpecker" because it only emitted signals that resembled the beating of the bird against the trunk of the trees.

Objets found in the Pripyat Hospital

Pripyat, the signs that should have been used for the celebration of May 1st, 1986

Hotel Pollica, Pripyat. This was the best Hotel of the Chernobyl Area.

The nuclear plant of Chernobyl shot from the 16th floor of a building in Pripyat.

Nikolai Fomin, 32 y.o. He is a namesake of the engineer of the head of the Chernobyl plant at the time of the disaster.

Nikolai Fomin, the guide approved by the military who accompanied Paul A. Restelli and its group of visitors during the two days in Chernobyl. In the background the Nuclear Lenin and the protective shield built by Novarka.

The harbour of Chernobyl, in the nearby slept the liquidators, or biorobots.

Chernobyl, the statue of the liquidators

The liquidators were those "volunteers" who first shoveled radioactive graphite leaking from the reactor core of the nuclear power plant. The plate shows the phrase: "To the heroes who saved the world." The liquidators had only three minutes available to them, because of the high levels of radiation, they had been fitted with a cape of 3 mm thick lead protection which weighed about kg 40. They had about 60 seconds to climb 10 floors of stairs, get on place for shoveling the material to be eliminated in 60 seconds and then going back, always in a minute. A mission impossible.

Paolo A. Restelli self-portrait in Chernobyl

All the pictures were shot by Paolo A. Restelli

All the rights reserved

To read this article in italian

Enrico Cattaneo, the photographer of the artists

Enrico Cattaneo was born in Milan, Italy, on September the 4th, 1933. He studied to become engineer at the "Politecnico di Milano", but during this period of time, in the '50s, he discovered, with some other students, a photographic laboratory inside the University, so they started to developing and printing their photos in this place. 

After a while, these students passed more time taking photos and printing then studying mathematics or physics. They were Franco Vaccari, Toni Nicolini and Enrico Cattaneo: all of them became professional photographers. Franco Vaccari (Modena June, 18th 1936) was interested in poetry, cinema and arts, his father was already a professional photographer in Modena. Toni Nicolini (Milano 1935-2012) was interested in photo-reportage, he documented the farmers migration from the South of Italy to the more industrialized North, with the painter Ernesto Treccani. Enrico Cattaneo deals exclusivly with contemporary art, documenting the activities of the art galleries in Milan and shooting the artists' work.

COUM Performance - 1976 Galleria d'Arte Borgogna Milano - Enrico Cattaneo photo

COUM Transmission was not just a group of Performance-art, it was an idea connected to the Living Theatre, a libertarian philosophy in which it was possible to explore dreams and obsessions, the potential of alternative and radical choices also in the artistic circuits and traditional medias like theater and music. It was a completely different thought (for example, an audience was not only made by university students or professionals, but also by workers and people without specific culture). The original nucleus consisted of Genesis P-Orridge, aka Neal Andrew Megson, who was born in Manchester in 1950, was an expert of Aleister Crowley, and one of the most prolific and extraordinary artists of the English underground. Cosey Fanni Tutti was a former porn actress and there was also a photographer, Peter Sleazy Christopherson.

Their performances orbited around issues like torture, war, psychological techniques of persuasion, strange murders (especially children and psychopaths), forensic pathology, venereology and life in the Nazi's concentration camps. They made more than one hundred and fifty artistic actions between 1969 and 1976, both in galleries and in alternative spaces, in which Genesis drunk blood and urine, used unsterilized needles, lied down on a bed of nails or was enchained and flogged by Cosey. The best-known performances: Prostitution, Ica (London, 19-26 October, 1976) and Gary Gilmore Memorial Society (with Monte Cazazza). After the experience with Coum Transmission, Genesis, Cosey and Peter founded the band Throbbing Gristle. (Source: Dictionary of the Show)

In this selection of pictures of Enrico Cattaneo, we can see a few artistic events occured in Milan in the '70s. Between 1970 and 1974 Milan was the second artistic market after New York.

Urs Luthi Performance, 1974 - Studio Marconi, Milano - Enrico Cattaneo photo

"I've always been very interested in art, but at the beginning, I was doing other things as an amateur. I was taking pictures of landscapes, in those days. I was doing a kind of photography that was very on the edge of amateurism. I did not do the beautiful landscape, I was photographing landfills; in the hallway of my flat I still have some of them hung on the walls I took in 1957. Landfills for me had a social connotation and then, still as an amateur, I also dealt with the first strike of metalworkers, in 1961. Just below, the Breda workers  paraded down here (next to EC flat TG note), it was a great strike against the Tambroni government. On that occasion, I was so unconscious, not having a great newspaper behind to look after these issues, I risked on my own. And the risk was great because then the police did not use his nightstick, but the rifle butt. I was working as a freelance for some secondary newspaper in Milan like "Le Ore", "Settimo Giorno", "Il Corriere Lombardo" and some other. I posted some pictures on: "La Notte", because then there were many newspapers of the afternoon that now are completely gone. This weekly called "Le Ore" became a tabloid newspaper, but then I was not there anymore, thankfully. I was very attentive to the new way of doing photography that was very different from the photographs made by the paparazzi, although in Milan there have never been the stars of the Roman night." Enrico Cattaneo from an interview with TG

Ben Vautier "Action" 1971 Studio Sant'Andrea Milano - Enrico Cattaneo Photo

9 EXERCISES TO EGO:

1. Change the name.

2. Decide what is bad and do it.

3. Never date a work exactly.

4. Go unnoticed.

5. Telling the truth.

6. Copy and imitate.

7. Committing suicide.

8. Doing all that is in our power to make happy another artist.

9. Losing completely his memory.

BEN 1969

Note: Strangely, Tony Graffio is following unconsciously 8 of this 9 points.

Alighiero Boetti - 1968 Galleria De Nieubourg, Milano - Enrico Cattaneo photo

"What do you want the critics know of me... Do you know where my embroidery come from? From my mother that made them do to kits for the Turin girls. And you know where she kept the models of those embroideries? Inside used envelopes for letter. Embroidery, envelopes, stamps... It all comes from there." Alighiero Boetti from: The adventurous life of A.B.

"Milan was the capital of the world: everything happened here. Even in our field who later became photography. Milan was certainly the centre of Italy and perhaps of Europe. All the most important publishers were here, all the major industries were here, so you found yourself around an extremely lively and active world. From an editorial point of view, there were at least two newspapers: the "Europeo" and "Epoca" of Mondadori who had their teams of editorial salaried photographers that regularly sent their shots from all over the world, from Vietnam to Chile. They were very few and certainly our desire would have always been to become one of them." Enrico Cattaneo from an interview with TG

Otto Müehl, Sharon Tate murder(Der Tod der Sharon Tate) - 1969 Galleria d'Arte "Milano" - Enrico Cattaneo photo

"In Milan there was everything, but it lacked the movie industry, although some attempts were being made also in this field. In Milan were shot very important films, such as: "Rocco and his brothers" by Luchino Visconti, "The night" by Antonioni, "Miracle in Milan" by De Sica and even Ermanno Olmi's filmography begins here with "The place" which is a typical Milanese history. These films spoke of us because I identified myself in a group which included the young escapees from the Circolo Fotografico Milanese." Enrico Cattaneo from an interview with TG

Jean Tinguely, 1970, during a very famous performance in Duomo square, Milan - Enrico Cattaneo photo.

"Every time Tinguely was here (in the flat where now lives EC. TG note) with Niki, then he organized the performance of this huge phallus that burst into Duomo square, creating endless controversy, Christo covered the statue of Vittorio Emanuele II in Piazza del Duomo, creating more controversy with the monarchists who asked and obtained to remove its cover from the statue, with big anger of Tinguely. To console the artists, the municipality of Milan allowed them to cover the Leonardo da Vinci statue in Piazza della Scala. But it was something else, Vittorio Emanuele II monument was very large. There are very spectacular Mulas' and Berengo Gardin's photographs of that performance. Unfortunately, I missed that event (the Christo's performance of the covering of the V.E. II statue. TG note) because I was busy elsewhere. I think that is a big hole in my archive." Enrico Cattaneo from an interview with TG

Ambiente (1974) On a project of Piero Manzoni dating around 1962, Germano Celant brought 100 white hens at the Toselli Art Gallery hoping to have white eggs to remember previous Manzoni's performaces where the artist marked the eggs with his fingerprints. Enrico Cattaneo photo

"Piero Manzoni had probably spoken voice with Celant about his project of the hens which then he carried it out at Toselli Art Gallery 11 years after the Milanese artist's death. The original documents of that project were not found, but in those years there were so many performances and cultural activities that also historians have difficulty finding papers. Celant hoped the hens produced a few eggs, but I doubt that this could have been happened in an art gallery." E.C.

Enrico Cattaneo (82), photographer and artist, on the terrace of the flat where he lives since 40 years. Tony Graffio Photography