Massimo Vitali

Massimo Vitali was born in Como in 1944, studied photography at the London College of Printing, and worked for years as a photojournalist and then as a cinematographer in film and television before turning to photography as art in the mid-1990s. The beach pictures began then and have continued since: packed Italian beaches, and later swimming pools, lakes, piazzas, ski slopes and discotheques across Europe and beyond, photographed with a large-format camera from a tall platform, so that hundreds of people are sharp at once and none of them is the subject. The light is high and pale, close to overexposed, and the pictures read at once as documents of how people spend their leisure and as large, calm compositions.

The prints are chromogenic, made in editions and in more than one size, from moderate to very large, each size its own edition, so dimensions and edition number identify the work. The largest are usually face-mounted to acrylic, which gives them their brilliance but cannot be undone, scratches easily and is sensitive to heat and light, so surface condition is the first practical concern. Signature, title, date and edition are normally on a label on the reverse. Because so many images share a subject, the exact title and year matter when identifying a print, and the studio holds the edition records.