Focus on Photography

On Saturday, September 23, at 6:00 PM, the exhibition Focus on PHOTOGRAPHY | The Young Italian Photography will be inaugurated at YAG/garage in Pescara, at Via Caravaggio 125.

With Focus on PHOTOGRAPHY | The Young Italian Photography, YAG/garage in Pescara aims to delve into the work of emerging and very recent photographers. Building on objective data gathered from the examination conducted, the gallery involves young artists, curators, and collectors to focus on the photographic pro duction of authors from the latest generations. The project was realized through a public call and a selection process that allowed 20 young artists to showcase two works from their portfolios.

The selected artists are: Gianmarco Aquilani, Andrea Astolfi, Gianluca Avella, Sabina Beta, Elisa Bonciani, Caterina Cantò, Vladic Ciccotosto, Alessio Cipollone, Alessandra Condello, Gennifer Deri, Valentina Equizi, Yoselin Giovani, Roberta Landi, Francesca Laghezza, Lisa Monaco, Andrea Piermartiri, Bianca Prota, Nunzia Tarantino, Luigi Vetuschi, and Elena Zallocco. Monaco Lisa, Piermartiri Andrea, Prota Bianca, Tarantino Nunzia, Vetuschi Luigi e Zallocco Elena.

One of the works, chosen by the artist, will be added to the permanent collection.

The biography of the selected artists and the works exhibited in the gallery will be published in the new 2023 catalog of YAG/garage, which will be presented in July 2024.

Photography, as a contemporary language, which often develops in a comprehensive and transversal manner in the best schools across the country, urgently needs to occupy the public and private exhibition spaces of an Italy that is finally beginning to regard this medium not as a secondary form.

Today, most young people between the ages of 16 and 30 primarily communicate through photographs, and social media managers replace text-only posts with engaging images, using applications like Instagram, which boasts over 9 million users in Italy alone.

Given the importance and privileged position photography has achieved in Italy, it is no surprise that this art form has evolved from being a historical-documentary asset to a contemporary language.

Many national cultural institutions are aligning with what is happening in other European countries, like Germany, which has successfully developed a photography system by connecting key points —schools, museums, markets, publishing—or England, where after the third edition of the Photo London fair, the announcem ent was made for a new center dedicated specifically to photography under the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In this landscape, it is clear that more and more public and private museums, as well as foundations active in the artistic production, are embracing the photographic medium.

This “urgency” has been implicitly supported by the attentive eye of Italian art collectors, increasingly interested in photography, as it offers a more affordable and investable choice.

In a rapidly growing international context, also supported by fairs in Paris and London or major auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Phillips, photography auctions are being revived in Italy as well: Finarte, Bolaffi, and Minerva Auctions, often with a focus on Italian artists.

Thanks to fairs like MIA Photo Fair and Arte Fiera in Bologna, with the photography section, collectors of photography are taking on a key role in the Italian cultural scene.

In this context, the photographer revises their position and role, increasingly aiming at fine -art photography that appeals to exhibition spaces and the art market.