Reading images. A writer’s gaze
Dialogue between Paolo Di Paolo, writer, and Marco Antonio Bazzocchi, professor of Italian Literature at the Bologna University
Thursday 26 October
In an age in which we are overwhelmed by an unceasing flow of images, photography might seem the best medium to describe our sensations. It freezes time and forces us to focus on a precise instant. A photograph hits our eyes and goes straight at our heart. No comments are requested, no words are needed. Yet literature hasn’t renounced to represent or reinvent the world. On the contrary, it can find in images a very strong accomplice, and vice-versa. “I enjoy shooting a picture. Being present. It’s a way of saying, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ It’s like the last three words of Joyce’s Ulysses.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
Marco Antonio Bazzocchi questions Paolo Di Paolo about his point of view on a selection of images from one of the 14 Foto/Industria exhibitions. Through the gaze of a writer, and starting from a limited number of documents, we will discover new ways of reading inside an image, trying to retrace the possible narratives it hides.
Paolo Di Paolo was born in Rome in 1983. Among his novels: Raccontami la notte in cui sono nato (2008), Dove eravate tutti (2011, Premio Mondello e Super Premio Vittorini), and Mandami tanta vita (2013, Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa, Premio Fiesole Narrativa and Premio Strega finalist), translated in several European languages. Many of his books come from dialogues: with Indro Montanelli, to whom he dedicated Tutte le speranze (2014, Premio Benedetto Croce), with Antonio Debenedetti, Dacia Maraini, Raffaele La Capria, Antonio Tabucchi, Nanni Moretti. He contributes to newspapers and magazines.
