Last year I was hired as a photographer of architecture to portray the Fondazione Sorgente Group’s headquarters: the aim was to get high-level photographs of the wonderful palace hosting this cultural and art institution’s headquartes and their prestigious exhibition place, the so called Spazio Tritone. The palace is known as Palazzo Tritone and is a very fine example of Art Nouveau located in the hearth of Rome. My photographs strived to catch the building’s imposing beauty and the artistic elegance of its inside rooms, fittings and art collection.
Lately I was once again appointed a photographic service by the Fondazione Sorgente Group: I was asked to shoot the marble pieces of art dating back to the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. displayed in the Spazio Tritone during the exhibition called “The Victory of the Goddess. Greek Marbles of the 5th and 4th Century BC from the Fondazione Sorgente Group Collection”.
I had the chance to shoot the statue of Nike Athena which is currently displayed in an exhibition at Palazzo Tritone in Rome.This kind of photographic service is not exactly the same as the ones I am mostly involved in and works in a slightly different way: in my wedding, engagement,
honeymoon photo services or else in my couple, family or events photo shootings I try to focus on the people and portray their characteristics and the stories behind them.
At the same time the pieces of art I shot for the Fondazione Sorgente Group’s exhibition have their own stories to tell: the statue of Athena Nike was probably a work celebrating military victories and, as a three-dimensional installation managed to show thanks to cutting edge technologies, the goddess was probably shown alighting on a rocky spur, her left hand holding a crown of laurel or olive leaves and the right hand a palm branch, with the traditional aegis on her breast and wings on her back.
The other pieces of art displayed in the exhibition also have their own stories: the two lekythoi (vases with long bodies and narrow necks) and a louthrophoros (an amphora) made entirely of marble were funeral monuments in memory of the deceased and in celebration of their families. The louthrophoros of Polystratos might have belonged to the family of Polystratos Deiradiotes, a wealthy landowner and major figure on the Athenian political scene. The three marble urns show the handclasp between two key figures of the scene in relief, perhaps symbolizing the bonds between the deceased and the still living members of the families.
Therefore we can say that my shots again managed to tell some stories, even if they are related to ancient times and mythologies. They will be used to illustrate the exhibition’s catalogue edited by Prof. Eugenio La Rocca, featuring texts by famous scholars and published by De Luca Editori D’Arte.
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