Prima che il tempo finisca

A self-taught photographer, Michele Pellegrino discovered photography as an adult and he has never abandoned it since. For more than fifty years, Pellegrino’s goal has been to investigate above all the landscapes of his province of origin, the Cuneo area, and in particular the Langhe, recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2014. To these places he has devoted intense black and white shots, where the history of the landscape and the stories of those who live there find a representation that goes beyond the documentary data to be entwined with multiple and many-sided interpretations, in constant dialogue with the thinking of great intellectuals such as Cesare Pavese and Luigi Pareyson. Whether they are portraits – as in his early work focused on the last peasants and cloistered nuns – or images of ploughed fields and mysterious lands, what transpires is the great culture of an eye capable of rendering a truth that goes beyond the surface appearances. This volume illustrates, through 150 shots reproduced in the fullness of the large format, the most significant passages of Pellegrino’s production: from the stormy and open horizons of the sea to threatening and impervious mountain peaks, to the suspended quiet of woods and plains. Bilingual Italian/English edition. Translation by Gavin Williams for Scriptum, Rome.