Mediterranean

From Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Tunisia, Syria, and Jordan, Jodice's luminous photographs evoke a vision of Mediterranean civilization that is a conflation of history and mythology. His dramatic yet ethereal images refuse both classical and contemporary boundaries in a fusion of the topographical and the intimate. Ruined temples, lost cities, heroic landscapes, gods and goddesses, vistas of Vesuvius and of the omnipresent sea transcend the constraints of their historical context in terms of both time and space.
At the same time, Mimmo Jodice's artful darkroom interventions give these images a renewed energy, one that is born of the present material world, but which seems sustained by loftier, more elusive mysteries. He begins with black-and-white negatives, and then works in the darkroom to create the simultaneous presence of a multiplicity of tones. Jodice's treatment of the photographic paper gives the images a suggestion of movement - they vibrate with the sense, as he puts it, that "everything is fleeting and somewhat impregnable."
Jodice's deeply original work reveals not only an experimental creative process, but also an informed and unique vision addressing a subject matter - archaeology - that has never before been considered in this way. His particular interpretations of such Classical icons remind us of the continuing impact of the Mediterranean world on our present lives, and reinstill a sense of epic, of adventure, of wonder, and even of providence - all so often missing in contemporary culture. Jodice provides us with a vision of the Mediterranean that is rich and vast, letting symbolic images become links between the experience of diverse peoples, and between ourselves and our distant ancestors. Read more Continue reading Read less FROM BOOKLIST
Italian photographer Jodice captures the sculpture and ruins of classical antiquity in a stirring new way; they seem to shimmer before our eyes, bringing alive the magic of their origins. Creating his toned black-and-white images, Jodice uses a technique--a change of focus during exposure--that suggests motion, and it is this technique that gives distinction to the photographs, making them seem more than records. Most seem either to have a radiating, vibrating center that pulls the viewer into the space or to be strangely pulsing from within. Ringing the Mediterranean with his camera, Jodice traveled to Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey to its north, Tunisia to the south, and Syria and Jordan in the east. A few seascapes amidst the depictions of ruins remind us of what lay at the center of ancient Greece and Rome--their watery crossroads, so to speak. Lovers of classical art, travel, and photography alike will be intrigued with this book. Gretchen Garner REVIEW
"The gods...are alive in the images of ancient statues--this makes us shudder, because Jodice perceives in them the living demon of creation, the agonized presence of life trapped in marble or bronze."--Carlo Bertelli

"Mimmo Jodice's work is defined first of all by what it rejects and by its asceticism. It repels confession and avowal--indeed, any eloquence; it cultivates instead reticence and discretion, it is impelled by a lyricism that is both reserved and impassioned."--The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Mr. Jodice depicts a mythical place, a homogenous Mediterranean of the imagination. Wars, winds, pillage and time have bruised the stones, yet they remain undefiled by Club Med. It is as if endlessly lapping water had effaced the national borders, dissolved the plastic Evian bottles, washed the sun worshippers out to sea. What's left behind is a romantic intertwining of wholeness and solitude: the oceanic sensation of merger between a self and its surroundings."--Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times
-- Review ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in 1934 in the Sanita quarter of Naples, Mimmo Jodice has devoted his energies exclusively to photography since 1967. His first book, Chi e devoto, a collaboration with Roberto De Simone, was published in 1969, and shortly thereafter Jodice was appointed professor of photography at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli, where he continues to teach. Jodice's early work documented themes of daily life and social unrest in Naples; the city, with its rich history, has remained an important element of his work. Jodice's photographs have been widely exhibited in Europe, and he has published many books and catalogs which have included essays by such eminent art historians as Carlo Bertelli, Germano Celant, and others. Accompanied by his wife Angela, Jodice has traveled extensively: along China's Silk Route, as well as to Russia, equatorial Africa, and throughout the Mediterranean region.

Predrag Matvejevic, born in 1932 in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, has taught at the universities of Zagreb, Paris (the Sorbonne Nouvelle) , and Rome (La Sapienza) . Among his many books, Breviare mediterraneen has been widely acclaimed for its poetic, experiential evocation of the Mediterranean Sea. He is the recipient of several awards and prizes, among them the INA prize for best critical writing and the Malaparte Prize for best book translated into Italian (1991) .

George Hersey has been affiliated with Yale University since 1963. He has received numerous honors and awards; he has also been a Fulbright Scholar in Italy; a Fellow of I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies; and a Visiting Scholar in Italy at the American Academy in Rome. Hersey has published many books, among them Alfonso II and the Artistic Renewal of Naples, 1485-1495, and The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi. He is currently working on three books on art and architecture.
Read more Continue reading Read less