Francesco Dolfo

Francesco Dolfo hails from Pordenone, a hard-working town with a punk spirit, in Italy’s northeast corner. A former champion canoeist, he spent his youth paddling round his home country, gaining valuable experience more than a tad beyond most kids’ daily rigmarole. But his fate would lie within the camera’s lens, genealogical fruit of a family of northern Italian emigrants. Some had packed off to spick-and-span Switzerland, others went to art déco Africa, to Asmara, where Francesco’s grandfather worked as a photographer. Eventually they all came back to Italy. With plenty of stories for young Francesco. Buttressed by proofs, prints, cameras and lenses as he grew. And a certain sense of intangible magic. He wanted to be an engineer and wound up in the army. Army athletics. Training for sure, he carried his Reflex wherever he went. Photos of Rome, its corners; his fellow draftees, their faces. Compulsory military service completed, Francesco enrolled at the European Institute of Design in Milano. His fate was sealed – he too would become a photographer.

From the get-go Francesco has worked with high-profile photographers, like Kazunori Hataguchi of Japan, and Bodha D’Erasmo with his still lifes. He learned what it takes to create ...

IED, Milan

Scatti # 11, 2018 solo show at Marsèll Paradise, Milan