Robert Polidori

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Robert Polidori (born February 10, 1951 in Montréal ) is a Canadian architectural photographer and photojournalist .

Life

Robert Polidori is the son of a rocket developer from Corsica . In his youth he traveled through Canada and the United States with his parents. He studied art at Antioch College in Yellow Springs ( Ohio ). In 1969 he moved to New York and decided to make films. Four experimental works were created, which were shown in workshops. In order to earn money, he became a self-taught photographer and achieved success. Travel and architecture magazines send him to all parts of the world for photo reports, for example he photographed hotel buildings in Dubai or Shanghai . Polidori's pictures achieve  high prices - including at Sotheby’s - and his illustrated books have received awards. His photos have been exhibited in many cities in America and Europe and have been published regularly in magazines such as The New Yorker , Vanity Fair and Geo . Polidori lives in New York and Paris.

Photographic work

The Austrian Cultural Forum in Manhattan, New York, photographed by Robert Polidori

Polidori's recordings of Chernobyl and Pripyat caused a stir . In May 2001, wearing protective clothing and a face mask, he visited the fenced-in exclusion zone that was set up within a 30-kilometer radius of these two evacuated cities after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and photographed, among other things, the looted rooms of schools and hospital wards, the control room of the "Block IV" of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (which he was only allowed to enter for a few minutes) as well as ships that rust in the contaminated Pripyat river and rescue vehicles that were provided with a lead jacket because of their contamination. The FAZ wrote about these recordings, published in his book Restricted Zones - Pripyat and Chernobyl : “Polidori's pictures show a reality that exceeds our imagination. They express the panic of sudden departure as well as the premonition of merciless eternity. These still lifes of horror breathe the deadly calm of boundless loneliness. " Ludwig Fels wrote about the recordings in the newspaper Die Zeit : " They are images of seemingly everlasting solidification and incrustation, still, quiet, oppressive. A city after an earthquake looks more devastated than the seemingly homely ruins of Pripyat, where decay takes place in slow motion. The compelling thing about these pictures lies in the inimitable accuracy and profundity of the motifs - in their aesthetics that do not insist on pathos. "

Even after the Katrina flood disaster in New Orleans, Polidori made a photo series that attracted attention in many exhibitions, which was published in 2006 in the illustrated book After the flood . There are no people in these pictures; New Orleans looks like a ghost town. The houses have been devastated, the mud-soiled furniture in the rooms has fallen over in a wild mess. According to Hubert Spiegel, the photographer chose “the trauma of doom as his subject. That the catastrophe, like all lust, demands eternity, that is the eerie message in these pictures, which tell of its persistence after the end of the horror. ” There was controversy that some of the pictures in his Katrina series in Brazil were commercially available in an Anti - Smoke campaign were used.

Polidori photographs buildings and places, he sees them with all their contradictions, for example when he photographs the deserted, colorful house facades in Havana , the former summer residence of the former Romanian dictator Ceaușescu, or the extensive restoration work on Versailles Palace . His pictures seem subversive . In his own way, he exposes the arrogance of some buildings that were created by great architects such as Axel Schultes or Le Corbusier , or denounces the unscrupulous modernity: "Shanghai's towers of glass and concrete grow towards the crumbling remains of the old city like threatening stalagmites, Polidori captured the movement of the inhabitants in the slums like the rush of refugees. ” For him, houses are “ living monuments, conceived by people for people, and thus places that tell about people ” .

Quote

  • “When I point the camera at something, it's like asking a question. And the picture that emerges is like an answer. It was only after a long time that I noticed that the longer you look at a picture, the more you see what you didn't notice at first glance. This profit is something like a knowledge dividend from a photo. "

Awards and exhibitions

Honourings and prices

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Group exhibitions (selection)

  • 2010: Flowers, London, Great Britain
  • 2007: Cook Fine Art, New York (USA)
  • 2006: Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto (Canada)
  • 2006: CCCB Center de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelona (Spain)
  • 2003: Camera Work Galerie, Berlin

literature

Illustrated books

  • After the flood . Steidl, Göttingen 2006. ISBN 978-3-86521-277-1
  • Robert Polidori . (Editors: Thomas Osterkorn and Andreas Petzold). Gruner and Jahr, Hamburg 2005. ISBN 3-570-19549-X
  • Robert Polidori's Metropolis . Steidl, Göttingen 2005. ISBN 3-86521-078-3
  • Heroes of the revolution . Edel Classics, Hamburg 2004
  • Exclusion zones - Pripyat and Chernobyl . Text: Elizabeth Culbert. Steidl, Göttingen 2004. ISBN 3-88243-921-1
  • Moods of La Habana . Edel Classics, Hamburg 2003. ISBN 3-937406-50-6
  • Havana . Steidl, Göttingen 2003. ISBN 3-88243-333-7
  • Havana . Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt / Main, Zurich, Vienna 2002. ISBN 3-7632-5297-5
  • Ancient Libya . Forgotten sites of the Roman Empire. Text: Antonino DiVita. Könemann, Cologne 1999. ISBN 3-89508-843-9
  • Castles in the Loire Valley . Text: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Könemann, Cologne 1997. ISBN 3-89508-597-9
  • Versailles . Text: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Könemann, Cologne 1996. ISBN 3-89508-424-7

Secondary literature

  • Elizabeth Culbert: Essay on Robert Polidori's Photographs. In: “Restricted Zones. Pripyat and Chernobyl ”. Steidl, Göttingen 2004
  • Christine Daum: The war reporter and the architecture photographer. The Chernobyl photos by Igor Kostin and Robert Polidori . In: “Eastern Europe. Journal for Contemporary Issues in the East ”. Issue 4. 2006. Berlin. ISSN  0030-6428
  • Ludger Fels: The expulsion from paradise . In: "DIE ZEIT" No. 35 from August 19, 2004
  • Martin C. Pedersen and Criswell Lappin: Introductory texts for the illustrated book. In: "Robert Polidori's Metropolis": Steidl, Göttingen 2004
  • Jochen Siemens: Robert Polidori . In: “ Stern Photography . Portfolio issue 41 “. September 2005. Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg. ISBN 3-570-19549-X
  • Klaus Wagner: restricted areas. Pripyat and Chernobyl . In: " Stuttgarter Zeitung " from January 21, 2005
  • John Updike : After Katrina. New Orleans After the Flood . In: “ The New York Review of Books, ” No. 19, November 30, 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hubert Spiegel: The Chernobyl Menetekel - Robert Polidori's recordings from the exclusion zone . In: " Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung " of October 23, 2004
  2. ↑ Ludwig Fels: The expulsion from paradise. In: "DIE ZEIT". No. 35 of August 19, 2004
  3. ↑ Hubert Spiegel: After the flood - Robert Polidoris pictures from New Orleans . In: "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" of January 27, 2007
  4. ↑ Source: Wikipedia article on Robert Polidori in English
  5. ↑ Jochen Siemens in: "Stern Photography". Portfolio issue September 41, 2005
  6. ↑ Quoted from the website of the Berliner Festspiele on the occasion of its exhibition in the "Martin-Gropius-Bau" 2006 [1]
  7. ↑ Quote: ibid
  8. ↑ Robert Polidori. Camera Work gallery.
personal data
SURNAME Polidori, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian architectural photographer and photojournalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Montréal