BIOGRAPHY ROBERT POLIDORI

ROBERT POLIDORI

Robert Polidori, a Canadian American photographer, born in Montreal and currently residing in Ojai, California, is one of the world’s most acclaimed photographers of human habitats and environments. Creating meticulously detailed, large-format colour film photographs, Polidori’s images record a visual citation of both history and the present times within the confines of a single frame.

He has documented numerous sites around the world, creating large format and highly detailed colour photographs of places marked by the imprint of past and present lives. Polidori’s images reflect on the notions of memory and history embedded in architecture.

 

‘The most interesting things are always behind us. I look at everything as archaeology. Where you point the camera is the question and the picture you get is the answer to decipher. My belief is that you should take stills of what doesn’t seem to move and take movies or videos of [what] does.’

  

After graduating with an MA in Film from State University of New York, Buffalo, Polidori moved to the United States as a child and began his career in avant-garde cinema by assisting Jonas Mekas at the Anthology Film Archives in New York, an experience that critically shaped his approach to photography, based on ideas of temporality and stillness. While living in Paris in the early 1980s, he began documenting the restoration of the Château de Versailles and continued for a period of 30 years to photograph the ongoing changes to its interior. He continued to photograph the crumbling majesty of the palaces of Havana, Cuba; the deserted ruins of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Pripyat and Chernobyl. In 2005, he travelled to New Orleans to record the abandoned homes and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, with works from the series displayed in his 2006 solo exhibition After the Flood at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. His bodies of photographic work have been the subject of more than 15 books published by Steidl. Polidori’s 2010 series of photographs Fra Angelico / Opus Operantis, exhibited in 2019 at Flowers, focuses on the frescoed interiors restored in the 15th-century Convent of San Marco by Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico. The photographs delve into the psychological structure of the rooms, exploring a connection between the peaceful interior spaces of the monks’ cells and the spiritual charge of Fra Angelico’s amazing masterpieces depicting the life of Christ, designed to enhance meditation and prayer.

His current work deals with population and urban growth through photographing “dendritic” cities around the world, including Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Amman.

 

GRANTS, AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
1998 World Press Award for Art
1999 Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Magazine Photography, Architecture
2000 Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Magazine Photography, Architecture

1998 Staff photographer, New†Yorker†Magazine

2006
2006 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis for After†the†Flood
2007
2008 Liliane Bettencourt Prix de la Photographie for Parcours†Muséologique†Revisité
 
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 Robert†Polidori, Camera Work, Berlin, Germany
         Robert†Polidori¨†Exteriors†and†Interiors¨†Galerie Karsten Greve, Köln
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles¨†Edwynn Houk Gallery, Zurich
 
2014 Robert†Polidori, Spuren†der†Zeit, Museum Bad Arolsen, Bad Arolsen, Germany
         Versailles¨†The†Memories†of†Walls, Fontana Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
         Robert†Polidori¨†Selected†Works, Erie Art Museum, Erie, Pennsylvania
 
2013 Robert Polidori, Versailles, Mary Boone Gallery, New York City, NY
         Robert†Polidori¨†La†Mémoire†des†Murs, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris
         Robert†Polidori¨†Selected†Works, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA
         Robert†Polidori¨†Secrets†de†Versailles¨†Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montreal
 
2012 Robert†Polidori¨†World†Inventory¨†Weinstein Gallery, Minneaolis, MN
         Robert†Polidori¨†Retrospective, Galleria Carla Sozzani, 10 Corso Como, Seoul
         Robert†Polidori†&†Jonas†Mekas¨†Portraits¨†Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY
 
2011 Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles, Galleria Carla Sozzani Milano
         Robert†Polidori¨†Ars†Memorativa, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong
         Robert†Polidori, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
 
2010 Robert†Polidori, Camera Work, Berlin
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles, Flowers Gallery, London
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles, Arthur Rogers Gallery, New Orleans, LA
 
2009 Robert†Polidori¨†Fotografias, Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo
         Robert†Polidori¨†Fotografias, Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro
         Robert†Polidori¨†Musée†d’Art†Contemporain, Motreal
 
2008 Robert†Polidori¨†After†The†Flood, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
         Robert†Polidori, Camera Work, Berlin
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles¨†Etats†Transitoires, Flowers Glalery, London
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles¨†Etats†Transitoires, Nicholas Metiier Gallery, Toronoto
         Robert†Polidori¨†Versailles¨†Etats†Transitoires, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY
         Robert†Polidori¨†After†the†Flood, Aurthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
 
2007 Robert†Polidori¨†After†The†Flood, Jarach Gallery, Venezia
         Robert†Polidori¨†After†the†Flood, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
 
2006 New†Orleans¨†After†the†Flood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
         Fotofrafien¨†Martin GroiusBau Museum, Berlin
         Robert†Polidori¨†Chernobyl, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY
         After†The†Flood, Flowers East, London
 
2005 Robert†Polidori, Flowers Central, London
         Chernobyl¨†Nocholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
 
2004 Havana¨†Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
         Robert†Polidori¨†Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         Robert†Polidori, Contact, Toronto
 
2003 Robert†Polidori, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY
 
2000 Robert†Polidori, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY
 
1999 Robert†Polidori, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         Robert†Polidori, Robert Miller Gallery, Mineapolis, MN
         Robert†Polidori, Gallery One, Toronto
 
1997 Robert†Polidori, Institut du Monde Arabe, Aris
         Robert†Polidori¨†Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY
 
1991 Robert†Polidori, Galerie Jacques Gordat, Paris
 
1990 Robert†Polidori¨†Galerie Urbi et Orbi, Paris
 
1988 Robert†Polidori, Atelier des Cannettes, Mois de la Photo, Paris
 
1983 Robert†Polidori, Braathen Fine Arts, New York, NY
 
1979 Robert†Polidori, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York, NY
 
1975 Robert†Polidori¨†Whitney Museum of ArtNew Filmmakers Program, New York, NY
 
 
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 Acchrochage, Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz
         Kûnstlerräume, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne / Köln
 
2013 Scale, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON
         Memory Theatre 2013, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
         Preview 2013, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
 
2012 Interieurs: Angela Grauerholz, Lynne Cohen & Robert Polidori, Art 45, Montreal
         Group Show, Sundaram Tagore, Gallery, Hong Kong
         Beyond Words: Photography in The New Yorker, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing
         Jonas Mekas / Robert Polidori, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York City, NY
         Past as Prologue, Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID
 
2011 Spectrum: East/ West/ Beyond, Sundaram Tagore GalleryHong Kong, SAR
         Celebrating Noma’s Centennial, New Orleans Museum of Art NOMA, New Orleans, LA
         The Interior World, Danziger Galler, New York City, NY
         Fifteen Years, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis MN
         Structure, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON
         Summer 2011, Weinstein Gallery, Minnewapolis, MN
         Process, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York city, NY
         Winter 2011, Weistein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         YangtzeThe Long River, Camera Work, Berlin
 
2010 Bredaphoto 2010, Bredaphoto, International Photo Festival, Breda
         Il ventre dell’architetto, Jarach Gallery, Venice
         Photography, Flowers Galleries, London
         Art of Caring-A Look at Life Through Photography, Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, OH
         DIVERSIDADE E AFINIDADES: Universo x reverso, Espaço Cultural Contemporaneo, Brasilia
         Summer 2010, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         40 Years On: Selection of Works by Artists Affiliated to Flowers Over the Past 40 years, Flowers Galleries, London
 
2009 Stigmata, Musée de l’Elysee, Lausanne
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
         Alec Soth: Fashion Magazine/ Robert Polidori, Versailles/ Nicholas Africano: Sculpture, Weinstein
         Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
          Wonderland, McClain Gallery, Houston TX
          Trouble in Paradise: Examining the Discord between Nature and Society, Tuscon Museum of Art, Tuscon, AZ
 
2008 The Interior: Contemporary Photographic Views, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
         Somewhen, Jarach Gallery, Venice
         Remembering Dakota, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
         Remembering Dakota, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
         Brasil des Focos, Paços das Artes, São Paulo
 
2007 New Works by Gallery Artists, Flowers Galleries, London
         Says the Junk in the Yard, Flowers Galleries, London
         Brasil des Focos [o olho de fora], Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro,
         Ingenium Photographie et Ingeniosite 18462006, BOZAR, alais des BeauxArts, Brussels
 
2006 The Living is Easy, Flowers Gallery London
         New Work, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON
         Peintres de la vie moderne, Donation, Caisse des Dépôts’
         Photograph Collection, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
         The Living is Easy, Flowers Gallery, London
         PAPER, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON
 
2005 Epilogue, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
         Atomica, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, NY
         Season Preview: New WOrk by Gallery Artists, Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto, ON
 
2004 De Wereld Deugt, Wijzelf Helaas Wat Minder, de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam
         Photography at Colby, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
 
2003 Esther HaaseKuba, Camera Work, Berlin
 
2001 Grant Selwyn Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA
 
1999 Preview IV, Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
 
1998 Weinstein Gallery New York, NY
 
1997 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY
 
1994 Conseil General de la Nievre, Nevers
 
1989 Chicago Art Institue, Chicago, IL
 
1982 Braathen Fine Arts, New York, NY
 
1981 P.S.I., Long Island City, New York
 
1980 BraathenGallozzi Gallery, New York, NY
 
1978 International Center of Photography, New York, NY
 
1975 Bykert Gallery, New York, NY
 
 
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Château de Versailles, Versailles
Colby College, Waterville, Maine
First National City Bank, New York
Fondacion La Caixa, Barcelona
Grinnell College, Iowa
Instituto Moreira Salles, Brazil
La Caisse des Depôts et Consignations, Paris
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
New York University, New York
Princeton University
The Berman Collection, Los Angeles
The Centre Pompidou, Paris
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The Link Group, Chicago
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Santander Bank, New York
UBS
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Yale University, New Haven
 
 
SELECTED BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS
RIO¨†Steidl, Göttingen 2015
Chronophagia: Selected Works 19842009¨ Steidl Göttingen 2014
Eye & I¨†Steidl, Göttingen 2014
Parcour Muséologique Revisité, 3 Volumes¨†Steidl Göttingen 2009
Robert Polidori: Fotografias¨†IMS, Rio de Janeiro 2009
After the Flood¨†Steidl, Göttingen 2006
Robert Polidori’s Metropolis¨†Steidl Göttingen 2005
Zones of Exclusion – Pripyat and Chernobyl¨†Steidl, Göttingen 2004
Havana¨†Steidl, Göttingen 2002
 
 
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, GROUP ANTHOLOGIES, ARTICLES, AND BROADCASTS
John Updike: “After Katrina. New Orleans After the Flood” in: “The New York Review of Books”, no. 19 Nov. 30, 2006
Michael Kimmelman: “What’s Wrong with this Picture?” in The New York Times, September 22, 2006
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