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- Hardcover
- 300 x 365 mm
- 120 pages
- 65 four-color images
- ISBN 978-1-59711-133-1
- Fall 2009
In Winter Stories, a beautiful and enchanting volume limited to 2,000 copies, internationally acclaimed artist Paolo Ventura presents scenes from the memory bank of a fictional circus performer as he looks back on his life during his final moments. Using his own childhood memories, beautiful miniature figures, and extraordinarily detailed sets constructed from props purchased at flea markets, Ventura creates a fictional Northern Italian town where a traveling carnival has stopped. Ventura's work evokes a simpler time from Italy's past, but with a dark twist—shadowy backdrops and retreating figures remind us that this is not quite Eden. A master of narrative staged photography, Ventura brings his imagined stories to life by building three-dimensional sets in miniature. With an essay by Eugenia Parry, Winter Stories showcases the ink drawings and watercolors that Ventura uses as a starting point for his stories, and images of the handmade album of Polaroids of works in progress that he creates as guides to his elaborate sets.
Paolo Ventura (born in Milan, 1968) studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan in the early 1990s. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Forma International Center for Photography, Milan; Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France; Fotomuseum Den Haag, Netherlands; and Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris. Ventura is represented by Hasted Kraeutler, New York. He lives in New York City.
