Something Out of Nothing

Since the 1970s, Guido Guidi has been making photographs of the world aroundhim, venturing out – often not far – from his home amid the agricultural landscapesof north-eastern Italy. His mesmerising large-format images depict houses, barns,people, tools, mounds of rubble and dirty snow. These unmonumental subjectsare pictured with care and precision, forming almost painterly images that alsostubbornly show reality. As well as admiration, they can provoke baffl ement andconsternation. They put pressure on the question of what photography is: of whatit means to take pictures of the world.In this essay, writer Louis Rogers looks at Guido Guidi’s work to consider whatit has to tell us about the habit of photography. Following the progression ofGuidi’s practice from the stark black-and-white pictures of his youth to the large-format studies of place for which he is best known, it examines how this deeplyphotographic work is shaped by a surprising relationship with painting. It pursuesallusions to early Renaissance religious art to analyse in material terms how Guidibalances the real and the symbolic, the exact and the mysterious. Drawing onphilosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature, Something Out of Nothing offers anintroduction to a wholly distinctive artist and a compelling new perspective onphotography as an art form and a part of life.