Renowned Photographer Dituri Displaying Works in Angelina College Gallery

With his enigmatic subjects and ethereal presentations, photographer Frank Dituri has created a unique style recognizable by viewers around the world. Dituri works have been reviewed and published in several international publications, including the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Zoom Magazine, La Repubblica and the Corriere Della Sera.


Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 7, viewers will be able to witness this exceptional artist’s creativity in an exhibition scheduled to run through Feb. 29 in the Angelina Center for the Arts gallery.

An artist’s reception will take place at 6 p.m. on Feb. 7.

Dituri, who divides his time between Italy and New York, is a photographer who likes to transform the obvious into images that border on uncertainty and mystery. His work has been exhibited worldwide throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia with solo shows at the Venice Biennial and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

Dituri was a teaching artist for the LTA/Guggenheim Museum Art Program and is currently in the art department at Libera Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. In New York City, he is represented by Fran Kaufman Fine Art.

There is no admission free. The gallery and reception are open to the public.

 

Artist's Statement

Along the Pesa
Down by the Water
Light in the Forest


FRANK DITURI ON LIGHT

“Though photography has always been my main focus painters like Giorgio De Chirico, Piero della Francesca and Edward Hopper have had strong impact on my vision; especially their sense of light and mystery. I do not see my photographs as rendering decisive moments or documenting an event. Often the role of the individuals in my images is ambiguous and unsure. It is this uncertainty that I often seek.

“Esthetically my visual sensibilities and approach to making photographs are very much in line with traditional painting and print making attitudes. The increased emphasis on surface quality and play on rich black and white print tonalities heightens the overall mystery and somber light found in my images. To achieve this type of mystery and dream-like atmosphere the quality of light is of paramount importance. For me, basically, light is a vehicle. I like to believe that my subjects are often generating their own source of luminosity.”

“Most think of light being something very quantifiable, but I envision light as something I feel, not measurable, but sublime. An underlying suggestion for many of my images is the heavy psychological atmosphere of which they are self-possessed that has much in synch with the world of dreams and memories buried deep in the “shadow.” The light acts more like a carrier, in the process of being.

“My images, which are often melancholy, also border on the dangerous visual boundary between the gothic and romantic. It is in this transcendent passage that vibrates between ‘beauty’ and ‘mystery’ that the light becomes eternal, particularly in the low contrast pieces that are almost completely composed of dark grays and blacks.”

As Naomi Rosenblum wrote: “Dituri is drawn to what light can do to suggest varying aspects of mystery. He is sensitive to the moments when it illuminates portions of nature, when it sharpens the edge of a column or a wall, or picks out a section of the human body to create unusual shapes on walls and rocks and living matter. As a result, his images reveal forms that ordinarily are not seen and that therefore lend a haunting aspect to what usually is commonplace. In his images, the light often seems to emanate from an unseen source, suggesting a kind of sacred or supernatural illumination.”