Francesco Bosso

 After years devoted to ethnic and anthropological reportage work in Africa and China, narrated in the photography books “Swahili”, “Africani portraits” and “China Crossing”; he decided to explore the horizons of the natural landscape, especially the wildest ones, which he approaches in an Oriental, almost Shintoist way. After all the artist states that “the landscape is actually a vision where atmospheres and states of mind get together”.

 At the end of a painstaking and elaborate process of radical selection and extreme synthesis, that he practiced on his subjects during is travels, Bosso immortalizes and extends these emphatic moments. His mastery of the outdoor photography technique with large format and his skill in the darkroom, according to exclusively analogical procedures, allow him to obtain prints on rare and valuable baryta-coated paper. This accentuates the crisp whites, the depth of tone and the contrast: elements that go to feature his unique style, definitely established with the publication of  White World, dedicated to the infinite variations and densities of white in nature.

 In 2012, he focused on the incredible variety and majesty of Iceland, represented with very clashing photos and spectacular lighting in the series “Golden Light”, published in 2014 in the homonymous catalogue and in limited/numbered edition. Subsequently, he presented the project “After Dark” with its fragments of natural landscapes enclosed in actual shells of light.

 His series Last Diamonds is an amazing visionary reportage amidst the majestic Arctic icebergs: a photo project, shot during a powerfully emotional trip to the edge of the Arctic, marked by the extraordinary encounter with some local Inuits, where the icebergs seem to turn into “floating” jewels, extolled by his black/white that enhance the edges. In this series, we also find rocky mountains, elegantly sculpted by the wind and the ocean, and warmed by the sun, on the brink of an inescapable transformation. In this work we can find an implicit reference to “global warming” that is devouring the glaciers of the Earth, the artist wants to underline a global emergency in a poetic way through his emblematic images representing natural icons of rare beauty.

The work of the artist is represented in public and private collections; he has exhibited in solo and group shows in museums, foundations and fairs in Italy and abroad, including the Fondazione, the Cultural Centre Museum in Hong Kong,Villa Pignatelli in Naples and Paris Photo in Paris, and Museo Pino Pascali in Polignano. 

 In 2014 he obtained international recognition for his solo show “White Golden Dark” at Palazzo Collicola Visual Arts in Spoleto. That show was a compendium of nearly a decade of work including abstractionism, panoramic photography and painting, curated by Gianluca Marziani at the as part of the Festival dei due Mondi. In 2015, he was also asked to take part in the 56th Venice Biennale in the exhibition Present Nearness in the Pavilion of Grenada, where he showed his imposing triptych Arrays. His work is illustrated in refined catalogues, by prestigious publishing houses like Electa, Skira, Adda, Castelvecchi, Lupetti Editore. Critics and curators of international fame have written about him and include Lanfranco Colombo, Roberto Mutti, Walter Guadagnini, Filippo Maggia, Gianluca Marziani. 

In 2019 his series “Waterheaven” has been shown at Camera Center for Photography in Turin, and it has been appreciated by the audience for the strength of the images.