Abstract

As a theorist of contemporary photography, Luigi Ghirri has constantly dealth with the relationship between photography and cinema. Though he did not write any specific essays on this topic, his writings are full of significant statements, and they collectively represent an eloquent and important theoretical reflection. His words support a notion of photography as an «open work» (an implicit reference to Umberto Eco), that is, as an interdisciplinary communication project that develops itself in relation to other arts and fields of knowledge, including cinema. Beginning with these assumptions, and basing itself on the significant connections to cinema in Ghirri’s oeuvre, this article investigates how film effects his theory of photography and the role of American films within it