OPENING September 17 2022 from 3pm to 8pm on VIEWfrom 18 September 2022 to 8 January 2023
Fondazione Sozzani will present the exhibition “The Witness, Climate Change” featuring a reportage of about twenty large-format images by Max Vadukul devoted entirely to the environment and the effects of climate change. Between 2018 and 2020 Vadukul documented in Mumbai and other Indian metropolises, some of the world’s most polluted areas with a mesmerizing and thought-provoking gaze that tells the truth and asks questions.
The first thing one will notice in the images of The Witness – Climate Change is a large shiny metallic orb sphere. This silent monolithic object appears in each image: floating above toxic landfills, hovering about fields of garbage, flying amid bustling and polluting traffic What exactly is this menacing orb? For Vadukul it is a kind of cosmic observer, a witness watching man’s devastating impact on the environment and the effects of climate change. At the same time, perhaps the orb represents a different future and the possibility to do better.
Max Vadukul is one of the very few photographers of his generation to continue the tradition of artistic reportage photography. His projects are often related to naturalistic and cultural aspects that are open to multi-layered readings. His images, perfect in terms of formal creativity and technical skill, are always visually structured as a mediating element between the identification of a narrative theme and his very personal creative language.
“My passion to communicate art reportage has now turned towards green climate change issues. I have been thinking about expanding my recent project “Witness”, which I photographed in 2018 around Mumbai, Kolkatt in India. In these pictures, you will often find a cosmic orb. People will look at it and try to understand why it’s there and what it represents. The reality is in front of the infinite sphere, behind a cosmic orb, above it, underneath it, it is a globe much like our planet. I’ve created this because it suits my method of art reportage through telling the truth without artificial manipulation. I would like to show the most beautiful places that we are losing due to lack of awareness and attention, the areas that are already experiencing the real and powerful effects of climate change; the pristine nature sanctuaries and wildlife species on the planet at risk of extinction due to these changes. At the same time I want to contrast the alarming with the beauty of what is possible if we do act.”
Max Vadukul was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1961, to Indian parents whose families were part of the Gujarati diaspora of the early twentieth century that settled in what was then British East Africa. When he was nine, in the turmoil that followed Kenya’s independence, he moved to England, where he grew up in a working-class borough of north London. During grammar school, Vadukul picked up a camera sitting around the house—his father worked for Zeiss, the German lens maker—and from then on his goal was to become a photographer. At the age of 22, he was discovered by Yohji Yamamoto, who hired him to shoot several of the designer’s prestigious ad campaigns. It was still the era when magazines had the power to launch the career of the next great talent, and the self-taught Vadukul now joined the ranks of the legends he’d revered growing up by having his work regularly featured in French and Italian Vogue alongside David Bailey, Paolo Roversi, Deborah Turbeville, Barry Lategan, and Helmut Newton. Vadukul’s body of work, which now spans thirty-eight years, also includes significant creative chapters at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Égoïste, W, Town & Country, and The New Yorker, where, in 1996, he replaced Richard Avedon to become only the second staff photographer in the magazine’s history. Vadukul’s signature style of black-and-white portraiture, which combines kinetic spontaneity with the skill of a master craftsman, has been widely recognized for its originality and iconic power. In 2000, he published a celebrated book, “Max: Photographs by Max Vadukul.” His work has also been the subject of several solo and group shows, including: “Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker,” at the Howard Greenberg Gallery (2011); “Yohji’s Women,” at the Wapping Project Bankside (2011); and “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955 to the Present,” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2009). He currently lives and works in Milan. Recently honored at the Taormina Fashion Festival, Vadukul is preparing his next exhibition in France in Les Bains.
Max Vadukul was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1961, to Indian parents whose families were part of the Gujarati diaspora of the early twentieth century that settled in what was then British East Africa. When he was nine, in the turmoil that followed Kenya’s independence, he moved to England, where he grew up in a working-class borough of north London. During grammar school, Vadukul picked up a camera sitting around the house—his father worked for Zeiss, the German lens maker—and from then on his goal was to become a photographer. At the age of 22, he was discovered by Yohji Yamamoto, who hired him to shoot several of the designer’s prestigious ad campaigns. It was still the era when magazines had the power to launch the career of the next great talent, and the self-taught Vadukul now joined the ranks of the legends he’d revered growing up by having his work regularly featured in French and Italian Vogue alongside David Bailey, Paolo Roversi, Deborah Turbeville, Barry Lategan, and Helmut Newton. Vadukul’s body of work, which now spans thirty-eight years, also includes significant creative chapters at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Égoïste, W, Town & Country, and The New Yorker, where, in 1996, he replaced Richard Avedon to become only the second staff photographer in the magazine’s history. Vadukul’s signature style of black-and-white portraiture, which combines kinetic spontaneity with the skill of a master craftsman, has been widely recognized for its originality and iconic power. In 2000, he published a celebrated book, “Max: Photographs by Max Vadukul.” His work has also been the subject of several solo and group shows, including: “Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker,” at the Howard Greenberg Gallery (2011); “Yohji’s Women,” at the Wapping Project Bankside (2011); and “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955 to the Present,” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2009). He currently lives and works in Milan. Recently honored at the Taormina Fashion Festival, Vadukul is preparing his next exhibition in France in Les Bains.
MAX VADUKUL, THE WITNESS
climate change
OPENING September 17 2022 from 3pm to 8pm
on VIEW from 18 September 2022
to 8 January 2023
Fondazione Sozzani will present the exhibition “The Witness, Climate Change” featuring a reportage of about twenty large-format images by Max Vadukul devoted entirely to the environment and the effects of climate change. Between 2018 and 2020 Vadukul documented in Mumbai and other Indian metropolises, some of the world’s most polluted areas with a mesmerizing and thought-provoking gaze that tells the truth and asks questions.
The first thing one will notice in the images of The Witness – Climate Change is a large shiny metallic orb sphere. This silent monolithic object appears in each image: floating above toxic landfills, hovering about fields of garbage, flying amid bustling and polluting traffic What exactly is this menacing orb? For Vadukul it is a kind of cosmic observer, a witness watching man’s devastating impact on the environment and the effects of climate change. At the same time, perhaps the orb represents a different future and the possibility to do better.
Max Vadukul is one of the very few photographers of his generation to continue the tradition of artistic reportage photography. His projects are often related to naturalistic and cultural aspects that are open to multi-layered readings. His images, perfect in terms of formal creativity and technical skill, are always visually structured as a mediating element between the identification of a narrative theme and his very personal creative language.
“My passion to communicate art reportage has now turned towards green climate change issues. I have been thinking about expanding my recent project “Witness”, which I photographed in 2018 around Mumbai, Kolkatt in India. In these pictures, you will often find a cosmic orb. People will look at it and try to understand why it’s there and what it represents. The reality is in front of the infinite sphere, behind a cosmic orb, above it, underneath it, it is a globe much like our planet. I’ve created this because it suits my method of art reportage through telling the truth without artificial manipulation. I would like to show the most beautiful places that we are losing due to lack of awareness and attention, the areas that are already experiencing the real and powerful effects of climate change; the pristine nature sanctuaries and wildlife species on the planet at risk of extinction due to these changes. At the same time I want to contrast the alarming with the beauty of what is possible if we do act.”
Max Vadukul was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1961, to Indian parents whose families were part of the Gujarati diaspora of the early twentieth century that settled in what was then British East Africa. When he was nine, in the turmoil that followed Kenya’s independence, he moved to England, where he grew up in a working-class borough of north London. During grammar school, Vadukul picked up a camera sitting around the house—his father worked for Zeiss, the German lens maker—and from then on his goal was to become a photographer. At the age of 22, he was discovered by Yohji Yamamoto, who hired him to shoot several of the designer’s prestigious ad campaigns. It was still the era when magazines had the power to launch the career of the next great talent, and the self-taught Vadukul now joined the ranks of the legends he’d revered growing up by having his work regularly featured in French and Italian Vogue alongside David Bailey, Paolo Roversi, Deborah Turbeville, Barry Lategan, and Helmut Newton. Vadukul’s body of work, which now spans thirty-eight years, also includes significant creative chapters at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Égoïste, W, Town & Country, and The New Yorker, where, in 1996, he replaced Richard Avedon to become only the second staff photographer in the magazine’s history. Vadukul’s signature style of black-and-white portraiture, which combines kinetic spontaneity with the skill of a master craftsman, has been widely recognized for its originality and iconic power. In 2000, he published a celebrated book, “Max: Photographs by Max Vadukul.” His work has also been the subject of several solo and group shows, including: “Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker,” at the Howard Greenberg Gallery (2011); “Yohji’s Women,” at the Wapping Project Bankside (2011); and “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955 to the Present,” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2009). He currently lives and works in Milan. Recently honored at the Taormina Fashion Festival, Vadukul is preparing his next exhibition in France in Les Bains.
Max Vadukul was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1961, to Indian parents whose families were part of the Gujarati diaspora of the early twentieth century that settled in what was then British East Africa. When he was nine, in the turmoil that followed Kenya’s independence, he moved to England, where he grew up in a working-class borough of north London. During grammar school, Vadukul picked up a camera sitting around the house—his father worked for Zeiss, the German lens maker—and from then on his goal was to become a photographer. At the age of 22, he was discovered by Yohji Yamamoto, who hired him to shoot several of the designer’s prestigious ad campaigns. It was still the era when magazines had the power to launch the career of the next great talent, and the self-taught Vadukul now joined the ranks of the legends he’d revered growing up by having his work regularly featured in French and Italian Vogue alongside David Bailey, Paolo Roversi, Deborah Turbeville, Barry Lategan, and Helmut Newton. Vadukul’s body of work, which now spans thirty-eight years, also includes significant creative chapters at Rolling Stone, Esquire, Égoïste, W, Town & Country, and The New Yorker, where, in 1996, he replaced Richard Avedon to become only the second staff photographer in the magazine’s history. Vadukul’s signature style of black-and-white portraiture, which combines kinetic spontaneity with the skill of a master craftsman, has been widely recognized for its originality and iconic power. In 2000, he published a celebrated book, “Max: Photographs by Max Vadukul.” His work has also been the subject of several solo and group shows, including: “Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker,” at the Howard Greenberg Gallery (2011); “Yohji’s Women,” at the Wapping Project Bankside (2011); and “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History 1955 to the Present,” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (2009). He currently lives and works in Milan. Recently honored at the Taormina Fashion Festival, Vadukul is preparing his next exhibition in France in Les Bains.