Mario Carbone: Isolato-Splendido-Marginale

The exhibition that bares the title: “ISOLATO-SPLENDIDO-MARGINALE” is dedicated to the ninety- four year-old Italian photographer, with roots from Calabria (Magna Graecia), Mario Carbone. As Carbone’s body of work that for more than half a century, unintentionally covers a wide range of activities, from the lives of people all across Italy, to the artistic happenings of the avant-garde, mainly in cities, my intention was for this selection to work as a subset, to reflect the broadness of spirit and choices he made.

A concern of mine, was to present a selection of works that would function as an introduction for someone who is unfamiliar with the continual presence of Mario Carbone behind the camera, and in the dark room. In parallel, I wanted to pay tribute to the liveliness of Carbone’s life’s work, which reflects the persistent love for the post-war Italy of the people, and the poetic outline of their everyday lives.

Photographs that are presented in this exhibition, have recently been included in Giovanni Fannelli’s book, “Rome. Portrait of a city” from Taschen.

Tassos A. Gkekas, February 2018

Ps. The font selection on the poster that accompanies the exhibition, was made by the photographer, whom I had the joy of meeting in his home in Rome, in order to select photographs for this exhibition, following a studying of his archive. Warm thanks to the photographer’s son, Roberto Carbone, that arranged three meetings with his father for me. The exhibition is dedicated to the wife and muse of the photographer, Mrs. Eliza Carbone.

Opening: Wednesday, 16 May 2018, 20:00
Duration: 16 May - 27 July 2018, Monday - Friday, 9:00 - 16:30

Due to the audience request the exhibition will remain open until the 7th of September

Mario Carbone
Mario Carbone was born in San Sosti (Cosenza) in 1924. He learned the profession of photography at a young age; from retouching to printing, from photographs suitable for IDs to portraits of newlyweds. He completed a long practical training starting in Calabria where he was born and then in Milan where he also worked in Elio Louxardo’s laboratory. In 1955 he moved to Rome and kicked off his cinematographic activity as a cameraman, director of photography and documentary filmmaker. He was a colleague of Cesare Zavattini and Giuseppe Ferrara, and a friend of Mimmo Rotella, Mimmo Paladino, Enrico Baj and Franco Angeli (many of them were depicted in his portraits). Carbone won the Nastro d’ Argento, the Silver Ribbon Award thanks to a documentary about the aristocracy in Calabria (1964) and the Silver Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 1966 thanks to a report –which was enriched with Vasco Pratolini’s texts– about the tragic Florence flood of 1966.