Pedro Gadanho - Paolo Rosselli - A Talk on Architecture in Photography: Photographs by Paolo Rosselli is the first of the four publications focused on each of the Dueto/Duelo sessions that fostered a critical debate related to Architecture, Art and Image between architects and photographers, which took place in 2016 in Casa das Artes of Porto, Portugal. Even though this book has as base the talk between Pedro Gadanho and Paolo Rosselli it amounts to much more than the rich exchange of ideas between these two authors. In fact, this book foretells the significant and close collaboration between the authors, editors and designers, particularly the passionate work with Paolo Rosselli resulting in a judicious selection and juxtaposition of images and text, combined with thoughtful layout and design.

The curators of this event - Architecture, Art and Image (AAI) Conference series - Duelo / Dueto - were Camilo Rebelo and Pedro Leão Neto and the organization was the responsibility of scopio EDITIONS, CCRE research group from the R & D centre CEAU of U. Porto – Faculty of Architecture and Camilo Rebelo Arquitecto, with the support of Direcção Regional da Cultura do Norte (DRCN) and Casa das Artes (CA).

The making of this book was an inspiring experience that allowed to create a visual narrative where the sum is greater than the parts, which allows for an innovative reading and a more insightful understanding about the thoughts, work and artistic strategies of Rosselli photography. With this book, the public will have a privileged insight over Rosselli´s photography work and how it relates to architecture and the city, as well as the author´s diverse artistic strategies and how as a photographer he grasps the world. In his own words “My view of the world is already a collage, it’s a sort of a “set”. I think about the “set”, I prepare it, and then I go around the city, and I try and propose to see the world in this way.” In fact, this “new perception” occurs when the photographer stops or suspends his analytical look and indulges in a wider and more tolerant perception of what exists around him: in that moment the gaze towards architecture becomes also a personal experience of a place. This is one of the sides of architectural photography; the side that is less focused on the the building as an architectural object and more open to suggestions and implications that a building establishes with the everyday life of a city.

On the other side, we understand better Gadanho´s ideas about Rosselli´s work and the relation between the world of architecture and photography. Emphasizing his interest in the work of Rosselli, Gadanho believes that the author´s Architecture Photography detaches itself from other more recurring and common approaches, offering us a deeper understanding of architecture and its space.   To conclude, it is worth referring that the specific potential of the physical book as a unique medium to communicate Architecture, Art and Image was explored in this publication, which adds to its uniqueness and makes it more an author´s book than the customary conference or roundtable publication. 

Pedro Leão Neto (Ed.)

Porto, 2018

110 pages
ISBN 978-989-99429-7-4