Lorenzo Vitturi

The View from the Street

Moving between photography, sculpture and assemblage, the work of London-based Lorenzo Vitturi finds its heart in the poetics of transformation and its language tethered to place.

By Daniel Boetker-Smith AUG 2016

Over the past decade, the boom in photobook publishing has had a number of key drivers internationally, none more so than Bruno Ceschel from the London-based organisation Self-Publish Be Happy (SPBH). Wonderful as the name is, ‘Self-Publish Be Happy' doesn't even come close to describing what Ceschel and his team actually do and the impact they have had on contemporary photographic practices.

Since 2010, SPBH has published incredibly distinct books under the imprint SPBH Editions. A prime example of this is Lorenzo Vitturi's Dalston Anatomy. The book was shortlisted for both Aperture and Mack's First Book Awards in 2014, and was named among the best books of the year by the British documentary photographer Martin Parr, photo curator Erik Kessels and photographer Alec Soth as well as by The New York Times and The Guardian.

I sat down with Vitturi to discuss two exhibitions: the first, his much-anticipated follow-up to Dalston Anatomy, Droste Effect, Debris and Other Problems, which showed in May at Viasaterna in Milan; and the second, an exhibition titled Sintesi SS9 showing until October at Chiostri di San Pietro, a Baroque palace in the Reggio Emilia region of Italy.

Although Dalston Anatomy featured four exquisitely patterned covers by Dutch textile brand Vlisco, the book's striking visual language, which exists at the intersection of sculpture and photography and was developed by Vitturi to tell the story of East London's Ridley Road Market, truly sets it apart. Vitturi describes his intentions at the outset of our conversation. “I'd call it a celebration of the diversity and multiculturalism,” he says. “I lived in Dalston at the time and... Subscribe to read this article in full

LENNOX STACMIACCA MelbourneMCA Roslyn Oxley Gallery IMA