Mimmo Jodice is an Italian photographer born in 1934 in Naples. He was professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli from 1970 to 1996.
While many artists focus on connecting the visual sensation of their art to the space factor, Mimmo adds another dimension: “TIME”. By transcending time and space, his work connects the old and the new, such as run-down monuments and the views of modern cities. Since the 1960s, Jodice has worked with many artists of various styles like Pop Art, Art Povera, or Fluxus. He made photographs of artists as a Documentary photographer of conceptual art.
Later, he focused on landscape and sceneries. Dealing mainly with Italian landscape and cities, using exclusively Black-and-white films, Jodice became one of the most dominant Italian photographers. An example is a series LOST IN SEEING: Dreams and Visions of Italy, whose effect is described by the essayist Alessandro Mauro by these following words: “In Jodice’s work, silence takes over places and photographs become metaphysical visions, an interweaving of the signs of the past as they return to inhabit the present”. Or the series Naples: Une archeologie future.
What is most fascinating about him is that he never went to the school of photography because it did not exist in Italy at that time, also there had never been a photographer in his family’s history, but he still learned how to do it by himself and thrived at the top. As a matter of fact he was the first photography teacher in an Italian Academy of Fine Arts.
Jodice was one of the first photographers who saw photography as Art and used it as an expressive way to convey meaningful messages across Italy and the globe.
Furthermore, his works have known numerous worldwide exhibitions (over fifty). For instance, his works are exhibited at the Aperture Foundation in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris or the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin.
In 2003, Jodice won the Feltrinelli Prize for photography.
In addition to that, Jodice has written many books about art, and photography to be precise, whether in solo or in collaboration with other artists. Here are some examples of his book among a non-exhaustive list:
Enchanted Camera-September 2018, Roma- March 2009, Lost in Seeing-April 2008, Procida-January 2007, Inlands- May 2002, Eden-July 2000, etc.
These amazing achievements and awesome works showcase Jodice’s expertise, and his legacy that will serve the world of art for a very long time if not forever.
Long-life to the living legend of photography!
