PHOTOGRAPHS
Faigenbaum, Patrick
France (1954 - )
Famille Ricci, Rome, 1987
1987, printed 1989
Gelatin silver print
19 7/8 x 19 5/16 in. (50.5 x 49.1 cm) image size; 23 3/16 x 19 11/16 in. (58.9 x 50 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.232

All the signs of wealth and sophistication are highlighted in Patrick Faigenbaum's portraits of Italian aristocrats in their homes. His subjects are beautifully dressed and groomed, and elegantly posed amidst opulent furnishings. The effect is quite a bit different than that achieved by Jim Goldberg in his deeply sad portrait of deposed royalty, yet Faigenbaum also suggests that a certain fear and sense of isolation invades the world of the super-privileged. In this picture, an Italian countess and her daughter are dwarfed, overshadowed--almost lost in their ostentatious palazzo. -- Label copy for The Photographic Impulse: A Critical History of Photography, The Joseph and Elaine Monsen Collection, Cincinnati Art Museum, October 12, 2001 to January 6, 2002.

Starting in 1985, French photographer Patrick Faigenbaum began photographing Italian aristocratic families in their homes and palazzi in Florence, Rome, Naples, and Sicily. His Roman portraits are rendered with sumptuous detail, chiaroscuro lighting that accentuates contours, and deep dark tones reminiscent of 15th-century Flemish painting. Faigenbaum poses his sitters in the center of the frame and positions the camera at a distance. This compositional strategy, often called “environmental portraiture,” suggests that the surroundings tell us as much about the individuals as their appearance itself. -- Label copy for Inside-Out: Portrait Photographs from the Permanent Collection, July 2 to November 29, 2009.