Frammenti Fotografici in Cucina, Giovanna Taddei’s Exhibition

Special attention and profound interest, the willingness to get to know more, retell and represent humans in all their complex wonders, is what moves Giovanna Taddei, a Milanese street photographer who was born with the gift of photography. “Frammenti Fotografici in Cucina” (Photographic Fragments in the Kitchen) is her own first exhibition, which she will inaugurate tomorrow in Milan. The exhibition was born from the willingness to explore the perfect match of food and art in an innovative, but moreover ironic way. An introspective look that wants to tell the story of the fascinating and creative life of chefs, protagonists of the world of food, retold in an unedited and uncut version.

Frammenti Fotografici in Cucina is a series of 21 portraits, which showcases professional chefs such as Mauro Bizzarro and his friends, which by means of photography are dressed up and pose as chefs, contributing and adding value to the celebration of a field that today more than ever lives up to its maximum splendor – absolute protagonist of television palimpsests – and celebrity chefs who today are comparable to rock stars. “His research wants to dig deep into the deepest parts of the human soul, and it wants to do so lightly, with a comedic lightness that is capable of passing from laughter to tears in a blink, or in the time it takes for a lens to shutter”, the curator Denis Curti welcomes the essence of the photographer with these words. Food is a theme that has characterized Giovanna’s existence since she was a child when her parents, famous restaurateurs, introduced her to this world and in 2007 allowed her to manage the restaurant “Ai Giardini, paprika & cannella” with her partner.

However, Giovanna is mainly a street photographer. She always has been. Passionate about street photography from a young age, on her trips she has always preferred to photograph people rather than traditional monuments. The change from chemical to digital photography has been fundamental to her education and her business. After having pushed her passion aside for a while, the artist started to take further interest in digital photography after the birth of her first son. Later, with the enthusiastic discovery of Instagram, her love for this art was born again, a love that had never faded, but which had remained latent in photographs of her travels.

Architectural details, abandoned houses, landscapes, animals, but especially people in common or bizarre situations, are her main sources of inspiration. Through her iPhone lens, Giovanna manages to capture expressions, gestures, inner feelings, ambitions as well as the fears of the human complex universe, a universe that occupies a major role in her work, and is portrayed with sweet tenderness and delicacy.

Giovanna has exhibited on several occasions with GoodFellas, a collective of young and listed photographers of which she is a founder together with Raffaele Cavicchi and Giulio Giacconi. Her participation in the photographic marathon The 24HourProject, for which she was selected along with 64 other people from 35 different countries also stands out. Her current research focuses on two more introspective projects; one tied to her as a child and another tied to the eternal duality that is in each of us. The appointment, therefore, is Friday 8 at 18:30 at the Still Gallery in via Balilla, 36. Don’t miss this valuable opportunity to be fully immersed into the world of cooking and to get to know a photographer who has a lot to share!