Leone

still reeling

with the events of the last days

here is yesterday ...

milan-brindisi-bari-lecce-martignano-lecce-martignano-trepuzzi-lecce-martignano-lecce-martignano-lizzanello-martignano... 

 darkroom death life creation travel  food drink friends work art

yesterday was my last day to get into the darkroom and print more of the limited edition series ... it has been an endless struggle as the giant professional enlargers they have there no longer have lamps, and the lamps are no longer produced ... so after a month of searching the Director of photography at the Academy found a lamp that had a fitting that could be used. It turns out to be neon and the quantity of light produced each time is different as well as the colour temperature , which in turn changes the image that is produced on the paper ie: lightness darkness contrast etc....

I had just made what I thought were the perfect prints and two men rushed into the darkroom turned all the lights on and told me I had to leave

the Director of the Academy has died

all my printwork was destroyed by light and I had 10 minutes to get myself out of there 

he was one of the most beautiful men I have ever met..

a gentleman ,the perfect Grandad

gave us everything
he is who gave me full reign over the darkroom as he was sad it was not being used anymore

he gave us our show
he organised it all
he removed all the bureaucratic stumble-blocks
he allowed us to do as we wished
his door was always open for all students and visitors
inside his office old antique Narnia furniture with faces of fauns and devils looking out of heavy carved doors and desks
he wanted only to move art forward in a generous way without any recompense


it was he who organised for his friends son to be my shadow to see how the old school photographers worked ...

it was he who saw creative desire and allowed it to go 
even if we had nothing to do with the Academy

a true forward thinker
an Architect, he studied at the university of Florence
he brought the Accademia delle Belle Arte Lecce to the height it is now, on a par with the Milan-Brera and Bologna schools of fine art and recognised as one of the very best in all of Italy

I went to do the "visita del morte"
I have now seen my first dead body in a coffin
his name is Giacinto Leone

this means

Hyacinth Lion

and he was exactly that 

all his students are crying