It naturally follows, that Joel Meyerowitz, a photographer who is famed for advocating the use of color when his peers in the art world doggedly resisted it, be a passionate and committed fan of Giorgio Morandi’s work. When the opportunity arose for the photographer to visit Morandi’s Bologna studio and to photograph the 270 objects the artist methodically depicted in his paintings, Meyerowitz jumped at it.
Positioned at the artist’s well-worn table, following the lines he once drew to guide him when painting, Meyerowitz allowed Morandi’s discerning eye to sing out softly through the dimming rosy light and the mottled texture of the wallpaper which formed his backdrop. He shot vessels, sculptures, hats and shells, each capturing a slightly different hour of the day to the one which preceded it. The resulting photographs, which are compiled in an exquisite new book entitled Morandi’s Objects and published by Damiani, feel distinctly collaborative in their effort -- Morandi’s curatorial ideas dictate the composition of Meyerowitz’s photographs, while the shrewd focus of the camera lens picks out details in the surfaces that the original artist’s own eye neglected.
