For Claudio Zanirato, his interest in photography came before his
interest in architecture and they have proceeded together intertwining in
various ways since the 1980s.
He graduated in Architecture in Florence in 1990, with a
multidisciplinary thesis on architectural design and semiotics of photography,
employing authorial photographic reading as a method of contextual expressive
control (connotations). This is how he finds a way to employ his very first
territorial photographic research, on Venetian lagoon minor island settlements
(La Città Riflessa), started in the 1980s, a multi-awarded work, exhibited in
various venues and published.
He continued his further education at the Florentine University and in
1997 he received his Ph.D. in Architectural and Urban Design, developing the
theme in the extended sense of “Limits,” starting with liminal spatial
conditions. Thus he again has a way of employing his method of territorial
photographic research, with large excerpts of the incurrent projects (The City
of Sand and The City of Work) as a corollary to the new thesis, consolidating
his sensitivity to the photographic translation of the connotations of broad
settlement realities. With these two other works well underway, he participated
in 1999 in the Collection of Contemporary Photography of the C.S.A.C. of the
University of Parma (Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, founded by
Professor A.C.Quintavalle), by invitation, with 50 images donated to the
archive.
Since 2004, he has been a tenured University Researcher and Professor of
Architectural Design in Florence, pursuing his photographic research on various
other topics as well, in support of thematically specific academic research,
presented in part at conferences, exhibitions and publications in the field, as
original iconographic apparatus.
Always fascinated therefore by the practice of territorial photography,
this has been translated over time into multiple other photographic
investigations since the first ones, continuously probing their spatial and
design values:
La Città Riflessa_sugli insedimenti
insulari minori lagunari veneziani, 1981-2011,
La città del Lavoro_sugli
insedimenti industriali emiliano-romagnoli, 1981-2016,
La Città di Sabbia_sulle realtà
balneari italiane, 1990-2014,
La Città Mutevole_sulle
trasformazioni delle periferie urbane, dal 2000,
La Città InForme_i cantieri del
cambiamento, since 2000,
A Cumuli_sui paesaggi del
cambiamento,2000-20,
Currently, the focus of interest is mainly on compressed space in art
cities (Lo Spazio Turistico), since 2019, with reportages in the “grand tour”
cities of the contemporary tourist. This research is divided into three
distinct lines: The Massified Space, investigates parasitic commercial
behaviors and commoditized tourists; Urban Packaging, observes the
opportunistic attitudes of construction sites in tourist spaces; Reflex,
concerns the store windows that stand in the places most attractive to
tourists, where monuments are reflected in promotional interiors.
Another new interest concerns the space conquered by Artificial Light,
from 2020, which investigates old and new ways of experiencing the penumbra and
the night, including light art, which has acquired more and more spaces and
modes of expression.
Carlo Scarpa's works, made in different Italian locations, made of
matter and light put in tune with the environment.
The Abandoned Spaces of Production takes up the themes of the productive
city that has become post-productive and the urban transformations it imposes.
Since 2012, he has been documenting the damage and especially the
reconstruction work in the town of Novi di Modena, hard hit by the Emilian
earthquake, in conjunction with design workshops and as the author of the
rearrangement of the main square.
Much of this work is collected in thematic photobooks, and many shots
have won prizes and awards in specific photographic selections, with industry
publications and exhibitions. Only since this year has he begun to market
photographic prints of some of his projects.
The main photo collections are contained in these monographic
publications, published by pamphlet, Bologna:
"Mobility and Urban Renewal," 2022
"A Cumulus," 2021
"InForm Cities," 2019
"Replace Landscapes. Replacing Landscapes 2", 2018
"Fabricated City" and "Sheds. In the Fabricated
City," 2017
"Into sand city. Into sand city," "Promenade. Into sand
city," "Miniatures. Into sand city," 2014
"Substitutions of landscapes," 2012
"Places and Connotations," 2012
He has recently participated in these group exhibitions:
“AIPAI Photo Exibition”, MUSIL,
Brescia / Fondazione AEM, Milan, 2023 / Villetta Casana, Ivrea (TO) / MUSIL
Codegolo / Fondazione AEM, Milan, 2024, Ex AEM of Modena, 2025
“BETWEEN LAND AND SEA”, Aurum of Pescara, 2022;
"PHOTOMAARC.
2020-21-22-24," Casa del Fascio, Como, 2020-24;
15th Florence Art Biennale, Florence Biennale 2025;
VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR - 21ST EDITION, Venice, 2025
