Paolo Rosselli (1952) was introduced to photography by Ugo Mulas at the age of 20. After the degree in Architecture he begins a series of long journeys in India with Arturo Schwarz. During these long stays dedicated to the architecture of the Hindu temple, he begins assembling photographic profiles of Indian cities. Since then, his approach to architecture through photography evolves in other directions to contemporary architecture in Europe; towards masters of modern architecture as Giuseppe Terragni, and in the direction of the past, the Renaissance architecture in Italy. Beside this activity he has pursued specific researches on contemporary urban landscape and on the interiors of the home, seen as a place where people leave traces of their living. He was invited to the Venice Biennial in three editions: in 1993 he exhibited groups of works on signs and messages found in the cities; in 2004 he shows an exploration on the interior of the home; lastly, in 2006, he showed a group of images of contemporary cities as Mexico, Shanghai, L.A., Istanbul, London. Recently, with the book Sandwich digitale and Scena Mobile published in 2009 and 2012 by Quodlibet, he has started to write on photography and about the changes in the perception of the real world in the digital age. In all, he is author of around twenty books. Paolo Rosselli was teacher of photography at the Milan Polytechnic for a brief period. He lives and works in Milano.
In a conference dedicated to photography and architecture it is logical that the photographer expounds his point of view. Just as historians, critics and curators do. Sometimes one feels the lack of other figures such as the collector and the gallery owner, that is to say the representatives of the so-called photography market, an area that influences the same image even if it is never admitted.
It seems to me that in the last twenty years the digital revolution has involved both architects and photographers, even if in different ways; the post-modern period ended at least in words, the architects have taken up (as is normal) to tap into history but in a very personal way, that is, without having to enlist in a movement. For their part, the photographers, after some initial hesitation, freed themselves from the urge to betray the mission entrusted to them by History, a subject very dear to the criticism that preaches rigor without understanding that today the photographer -man or woman - as a figure is changed, and comes from university studies and not from a dusty chemistry lab.
So, it happens that the only ones to comfort us on the continuity of a civilization are the writers who even though do may not construct a new grammar or invent new words, continue to write according to the ancient rules, mixing imagination and reality, as has always been done. If we listen to literary critics, it seems that for the moment the literature of the web has not yet been born nor has it therefore arrived in bookstores. So much so that if we were to compile a list of the true heroes of our time, there would be writers in first place, with all due of maitre à penser who enjoy sabotaging the systems with their foolish ideas.
