26.11.08

TONY BOCCACCIO

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Tony Boccaccio (Ιταλία)

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Tony Boccaccio
In another life, Anthony Boccaccio must have been a Renaissance painter. His use of light, shadow and the human form take us back to a time when the celebration of the body was the challenge accepted by great artists from Michelangelo to Titian. Indeed, much of the inspiration for the nudes in this collection came from the great masterpieces of Italian painting, frescos and sculptures he saw daily while living in Rome, Italy.
The sensual for Boccaccio is more interesting visually than the erotic. Though no one could deny that this collection of beautiful bodies calls forth a certain erotic tone, it is an echo of innocence and purity. There is an Ideal at work in his photography, and although most of his models do not posses the ideal body (whatever that is!) Boccaccio is quick to say that the body is not important in itself but only as it points to and reflects the beauty and mystery hidden beneath the form.
Boccaccio began his career with National Geographic Magazine in 1971. Since then, his camera has taken him to over thirty countries in as many years. Like most photographers, he is a series of contrasts: His lens has captured the frozen landscapes of Iceland and the sweltering jungles of the Amazon. He is probably most known for his beautiful travel photography, yet while working with the human figure, his sensitivity rivals that of the great painters. Indeed, his artistic life began as a young painter trained in the classical manner. He studied classical piano at the prestigious Eastman School of Music and taught himself to play the bluegrass banjo. He lived in Brazil as a teenager and Italy as a college student. In 1995, he returned to Rome, Italy to continue his painting and to learn how to sculpt in the classical manner under one of Rome's most gifted sculptors, Alessandro Nocera.

"Painting was my first passion. My grandmother catapulted me into oil painting when I was only 12 years old. To get me out of her hair one day, she sent me to Washington Square Park in New York City loaded up with canvas, brushes, paints and easel. I told her I did not know how to paint; she told me to just put the canvas up, look cute, and all the old ladies in the park would gather around to teach me. That is exactly what happened and by the time I was 16, I was painting on commissions and selling my work for more than the monthly mortgage payment on our home. I discovered the camera when I was 17. My high school art teacher took me into the darkroom to see how printing was done. When I saw that first image miraculously appear I was hooked. That night I announced to my family that I was no longer going to paint, that I was going to be a photographer. My father, old Italian that he was, almost killed me, since I gave half of all my commissions to him. My mother intervened and the rest is history."