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Over the sixty years of his career, Franco Fontana photographed that which cannot be seen and was able to capture, in his shots, an image that is “other,” abstracted from reality, independent of the subject portrayed. Geometry, proportions, and composition allowed him to gradually achieve a conceptual synthesis that he then translated into a linguistic unit and its formal manifestation.

Invisible, a 168-page volume containing over 100 photographs, is the result of rigorous archival research from which emerge shots that have never before been published—ranging from his more experimental works to his more intimate attempts to achieve a freedom of expression—and appear here alongside the icons that have rendered Franco Fontana famous worldwide.

This meticulously compiled volume is dedicated to those who are approaching this artist’s practice for the first time, as well as to those who wish to explore the interior space that is just beyond reality and belongs to subjective interpretation, where one goes to seek an image that doesn’t yet exist, which only the sensitive eye of the photographer can glimpse and translate into a unique and unprecedented image. Suddenly, the invisible becomes visible.

Franco Fontana, who is considered one of the most relevant photographers of our time, was born in 1933 in Modena, where he still lives and works. His first approach to photography was in the 1960s. In 1963 he exhibited his work at the Biennale of Color in Vienna, and in 1968 he held his first solo exhibition in Modena. His art has been acquired by some of the most important museums worldwide, including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, MoMA in New York, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Museum of Modern Art in Norman, Oklahoma, National Gallery in Beijing, Australian National Gallery in Melbourne, University of Texas in Austin, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris.