These still lifes bear testimony to the fact that in his photographs, Giuseppe Cavalli (1904-1961) never gave in to documentarism. His work was always creative, a poetic synthesis in which – the artist once declared – the subject was completely meaningless, because “documents are not art; if they are, they are so in spite of their being documents”.
Cavalli was born in Foggia and started experimenting with photography in the 1930s; he was a fine intellectual, and a cinema, literature and music connoisseur. He wrote the first manifesto of “La Bussola” group: in those words, he summed up his vision of “photography as art”.

"Still life", Prelz Oltramonti Collection, London

"Still life with fish", 1952-1953

"Still life with fish"

"Still life with fish"

"Still life"

"Still life"

"Still life"

"Still life"

"Still life"

"Still life"

"Studio no.10", 1949

"Still life"

"The Lock", 1954

"The Black Pipe", 1951, Prelz Oltramonti Collection, London

"The Chessboard", 1954

"Still life"