Realtà e immaginazione nelle fotografie di Franco Grignani

What is a photograph? The work of Franco Grignani (1908-1999) seems conceived to test the limits and detect the cracks, ambiguities and overlaps in the category of “photographic” art. The role of photography in the practice of the artist is fundamental and generative. Throughout his career Grignani led the research on the mechanisms of perception and communication in the life “everyday” considering the social value of art and photography as a tool in exploring the data ipso facto perceived reality. The reading of a series of works and unpublished writings reveals to us that the author “incubated” images in the darkroom in order to probe reality and override the stereotypes of a certain type of images that stifle the visual experience of modern man. Experimental photographs that stimulate natural intuition and perception so that man transforms real data into creativity. It is therefore arguable that the photographic dimension had such a strong influence in the artistic thought of Franco Grignani that without it most of his work would not exist.