Böcker utgivna av Contrasto

A long journey through war fieldsA visual witness of the social and political reality of our country, not only a "photographer of the mafia Letizia Battaglia (1935-2022) is recognized as one of the most important figures of contemporary photography. Her pictures firmly present in the collective imagination, but also for the civil and ethical value of her work. The book testifies to forty years of Italian life and society with more than 150 unpublished photographs, specimens and vintage prints from the great photographer's historical archive. An uninterrupted album that goes from the street protests in Milan in the 1970s to the face of Pier Paolo Pasolini, from the many deaths due to mafia, to the unconscious elegance of little girls in Palermo's Cala district; and then religious processions, the havoc of the Sicilian coastline, the faces of Piersanti Mattarella, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, no to the vicious boss Leoluca Bagarella. A 360-degree portrait to return the intensity that characterizes all Letizia Battaglia's work: from the photographical and political engagement, from editorial activity to theatrical and cinematographical activity up to the recent establishment of the International Center for Photography in Palermo.

Un termine che spesso ritorna nei lavori di Ivor Prickett ¿ fotografo irlandese, classe 1983, tra gli sguardi più interessanti della fotografia contemporanea ¿ è home, ¿casä. Dal 2006 in poi, nelle sue immagini che registrano i tumulti e le vicissitudini dei diversi fronti di guerra che hanno sconvolto e ancora sconvolgono l¿Europa, per molti la casa è un miraggio lontano, una perdita irreparabile, un luogo del ricordo dove le centinaia di displaced della guerra non riusciranno forse a tornare mai, il sogno di chi è ormai costretto ad accontentarsi di centri di raccolta, campi profughi, sistemazioni momentanee che rischiano di diventare poi tragica e assoluta permanenza. No Home from War è il titolo di questa bellissima retrospettiva, la prima italiana, realizzata in contemporanea con la mostra omonima che inaugura a Reggio Emilia, presso la Fondazione Maramotti, per il Festival Fotografia Europea. ¿Non si torna a casa dalla guerrä, ci avverte Ivor e nelle sue immagini a colori, perfette nella loro costruzione plastica, intense e struggenti nei colori tenui, ritroviamo i volti e i gesti di chi ha perso tutto, casa e identità. In oltre cinquanta grandi immagini, Prickett ci invita così a percorrere con lui un viaggio, nello spazio e nel tempo. Partendo da una dimensione intima e domestica, caratterizzata dai con itti umani e sociali in Croazia e Abkhasia, il fotografo si è spostato nei luoghi di migrazione forzata, nelle terre di ricercato rifugio in Medio Oriente e in Europa, no a giungere in prima linea nelle zone di combattimento come l¿Iraq o la martoriata Ucraina, documentata proprio in questi ultimi mesi. Un lavoro magistrale, intenso e delicato di uno dei giovani maestri della fotografia e del fotogiornalismo internazionale. Con un testo di Arianna Rinaldo. Il catalogo esce in contemporanea con la mostra che inaugurerà il 30 aprile 2023 preso la Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, nell¿ambito del Festival Fotografia Europea.

Returns to Beirut by Gabriele Basilico, in the words of the curator Giovanna Calvenzi is the book that "should be [...] "definitive" to remember a deep and passionate relationship that has linked Gabriele Basilico to the city of Beirut, which over the years has also become one of the central cornerstones of his commitment to photography. In addition to a long work in the archive of re-reading of all that Basilico has achieved, "accomplices" of the various journeys have also been invited to exercise their memories. The wide selection of black and white and colour photographs is introduced by texts by Gabriele Basilico, Giovanna Calvenzi, Tanino Musso, Fouad Elkoury, Gabriel Bauret, Christian Caujolle, Alessandro Ferrario, Rita Capezzuto and a Chronology by Farian Sabahi. Thus, page after page, we discover the work carried out by Gabriele Basilico on the occasion of four photographic missions to Beirut in 1991, 2003, 2008 and 2011. In 1991 he was involved by the Hariri Foundation and the Lebanese writer Dominique Eddé in a project that aimed at the photographic documentation of the central area of the city of Beirut at the end of the devastating Civil war that had torn the city apart for fifteen years. With him are called five other photographers: Raymond Depardon, Josef Koudelka, Robert Frank, René Burri and Fouad Elkoury. Basilico moves in the center of the devastated and still undermined capital with the gaze that has characterized all his production, attentive to the transformations of the contemporary landscape, to form and identity of cities and metropolises from an architectural point of view, of course, but above all social. Since then, hewill decorate Beirut three more times. In 2003 on behalf of the architecture magazine Domus, directed by Stefano Boeri, to record the reconstruction of the city through urban views corresponding to the photos taken in the 1991. In 2008, when on the occasion of the inauguration of one of his exhibitions at the Planet Discovery Center continues to record the reconstruction of the city. And finally in 2011, when the Hariri Foundation called him again to document the Beirut rebuilt together with Fouad Elkoury, Klavdij Sluban and Robert Polidori. The photographer's eye thus rests on a city that changes in its appearance and soul, linking itself to that of Basilico who will write: "The practice of returning creates a singular sentimental disposition: like waiting for a desired appointment, an awakening of memory for places, objects, people, as if the engine of a machine stopped for some time were rekindled. For Beirut it was even more."

Valerio Bispuri was born in 1971 in Rome, where he lives. He has a degree in Literature and since 2001 he is a professional journalist and photojournalist. He worked for some of the major Italian and international newspapers and magazines such as: L¿Espresso, Il Venerd¿i Repubblica, Internazionale, Le Monde and Stern. He worked extensively in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Middle East. He exhibited his works in Italy, Spain and Argentina. Bispuri has been awarded with numerous international awards including the Latin American POY 2011, the Sony World Photography Award 2013 (first prize in the ¿Contemporary Issues¿ section), the Days Japan International Photojournalism Awards 2013 and the POY 2014. Contrasto has published both his important reportages, Encerrados (2015) and Paco (2017).

The first photo book on the most important fish market in Tokyo, which currently risks losing its identity due to globalization.

The Vatican Museums come to vivid life in this collection featuring work by Bill Armstrong, Peter Bialobrzeski, Antonio Biasiucci, Alain Fleischer, Francesco Jodice, and others.

This book recounts Jack London photographer beautifully juxtaposing his worldwide famous literature with his incredible photographs.

Provides interviews of renowned international photographers. This book takes a dive into history through the images and the words of witnesses that have captured and lived some of the tragic and intense moments of our past.

1989 was an epoch-making year. This title records the fall of the BerlinWall, Tiananmen Square, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the Exxon Valdez disaster; in the world of entertainment, the success of Madonna and George Michael; and the release of the films "Batman", "Dead Poets Society" and "When Harry Met Sally".

What is the future of America? Will the youth play the role everybody is expecting them to? This book presents a group of award-winning photographers who join together to take a fresh look at the youth of America.