The official name of this event is LUCCAdigitalPHOTOfest'07. It includes 15 exhibitions by great photographers, in the kind of wonderful settings that Lucca can offer, like the Palazzo Ducale (off of Piazza Napoleone), the Palazzo Guinigi (near the Torre) or Villa Bottini (on via Eliza), and even an ex-tobacco manufacture (via Vittorio-Emmanuelle).

The complete list of exhibitions is available on the expo website.

We visited nearly all of them over the weekend, and my favourite, in no particular order, were:

• Trent Parke (Palazzo Ducale), for his extraordinary use of light, and even better use of darkness, (see some of his pictures on Magnum)
• Francesco Tommasi (Ex Manifattura Tabacchi), from Lucca, for his colorfull pictures of the Italian rollerblading community (after too much black and white my eyes desperately needed a little color), (interview)
• Oded Balility (I also found his name spelt "Balilty") (Ex Manifattura Tabacchi), a poignant series on the Israeli separation barrier,
• Maurizio Galimberti, (Baluardo San Regolo, in the Giardino Botanico), for his way of showing Lucca, through clever juxtapositions of Polaroid-like images (more on his site).

At the same time as the main event, 9 bars in Lucca host exhibitions by local photographers, an event called Photocaffè, organized by the local club Photolife Lucca.

The expo goes on until December 16th, so you still have a chance at catching it this year. If you miss it, then you can always come back in 2008.

note: all pictures except one were taken by Antonio, 6, official event photographer for I Love Lucca

posted by michel, 2007-11-26