Roberto Spampinato was one of the post-war Italian photographers who recorded Italy’s socioeconomical condition in the mid-twentieth century and its birth as a democratic nation. He captured the faces and scenes of a nation liberated from dictatorship, in which whatever was difficult and nearly difficult, but nonetheless vibrated with vigor and hope.
Spampinato was born in Milan in 1924 and began to photo in the 50s, with an accurate taste for “instantaneous” photography with a Bressonian matrix. He took a trip to Paris in 1953 where he took images that he later on chose to send to the magazine Il Mondo. Mario Pannunzio, at the time the director of Il Mondo, maintained twenty-seven images that he released on numerous events: this was the beginning of a long and productive cooperation. With the discretion and sobriety that differentiated him, Roberto Spampinato frequented the amateur environment and continued his activity with enthusiasm, keeping his range from the heated diatribe of the time’s photographic clubs.
His pictures and his articles have actually been typically published in the specialized publication Ferrania. Spampinato likewise received various awards in national photographic competitions. His value in the art market has grown considerably over the last two decades and his works of art can be discovered in the prominent collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Arts in Houston, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Musée Historie Carnavalet in Paris, in addition to the university collections of Lehigh University art galleries and the Haverford College Gallery in Pennsylvania.
NeoRealismo– The New Image in Italy 1932-1960, a global exhibit that has visited 16 venues in European and American organizations, includes a selection of his pictures. Enrica Viganò’s book, titled after the exhibit, was very first published in Italian (ADMIRA Edizioni, 2006) and then equated into a number of languages. Presently, ADMIRA solely represents Spampinato’s operate in cooperation with his heirs.
Roberto Spampinato passed away on December 1st, 2022, at the age of 98.
Chiara Pasquali