Screenwriter Ennio Flaiano once stated that “In Italy, the shortest distance between two points is the arabesque,” encapsulating in one sentence his compatriots’s talent for long-windedness, convolution, and elegance. I’ve always thought Flaiano’s witty remark finds a perfect counterpart in the photographic work of Luigi Ghirri, who dedicated his career to depicting scenes from the country.

Born in 1943 in a small village in Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy, Ghirri spent his working life in the same region which incidentally produced film directors Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, two other paramount Italian storytellers. The country’s postwar climate, economic revival, and cultural ferment during the 1960s significantly influenced Ghirri’s development as an artist.