Il secondo paradiso: natura e giardino nelle immagini dei grandi fotografi. La fotografia vista da Gae Aulenti. Mole Antonelliana, Turin. Milan, Fabbri Editori, 1992
The title, Il secondo paradiso (“The Second Paradise”), derives from this chain of ideas: point 1) Whether he intends it or not, a gardener expresses his idea of nature through his garden. No garden fails to transform nature in the directions its author and creator loves, fears or desires. Point 2) When a photographer tells the story of a garden, they use the photo to redesign exterior reality, becoming in their way a photo-gardener who models nature. Point 3 o Summary) In this short-circuit between nature, garden and garden-photographer, we find two transformations: that of the gardener transforming nature, and that of the photographer transforming the garden – generally one more beautiful and interesting than the other. This explains the title, which translates as: The Second Paradise: Nature and Garden in Pictures by Great Photographers. Photography as Viewed by Gae Aulenti.
This is D.P’s idea as she approaches her photographic research for this volume, for which the internationally acclaimed architect Gae Aulenti constructed the architectural sequence portraying the reality of nature in the garden. The main steps in the sequence are: the elements that make up the garden and the criteria for identifying space and time. Then the great categories of gardens are displayed: Italian-style and French-style, but also imaginary ones.: Zen gardens and water gardens, avant-garde and candle-lit gardens, and on to the gardens of artists like Monet, or those of photographers like Paul Strand.
To underscore both the extreme liberty and the continuity between nature, garden and garden-photographer, D.P. has included in her story of some gardens – such as that of Versailles – the vision of photographers who are very different from each other and who view them in different ways, at different times of year. And thus the photo-gardener can be seen to be a demiurge, a gardener raised to the highest power.
Among the photographers who interpret the idea as well as the visions of these great gardens through the seasons, here are some of the authors we have chosen:
Ansel Adams; Marella Agnelli Caracciolo; Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget; Karl Blossfeldt; Brassai; Harry Callahan; Henri Cartier-Bresson; Giovanni Chiaramonte; Roger Fenton; William Henry Fox Talbolt; Luigi Ghirri; Mario Giacomelli; Gilbert & George; Ernst Haas; Hiroshi Hamaya; David Hockney; Izis; Jacques Henri Lartigue; Robert Mapplethorpe; Irving Penn; Stephen Shore; Paul Strand; Minor Martin White.
Among the presented gardens there are:
Bomarzo; Desert de Retz; Giardini Kahn (Francia); Giardino del tempio di Ryoan-Ji (Kyoto); Giardino di Ian Hamilton Finlay; Giardino di Muschio (Kyoto); Giardino di Paul Strand (Orgeval); Giverny (Francia); Castello di Linderhof (Baviera); Ninfa (Italia); Palagonia (Sicilia, Italia); Reggia di Caserta (Italia); Sissinghurst (Inghilterra); Versailles (Francia); Villa Gori (Italia).
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