Io tra di voi / L’ombra del fotografo (Me between you / The Photographer's Shadow). Vernacular photos and Snapshots from XXth

From Thursday 19 March to Friday 29 May 2026, the Spazio e Immagini gallery in Bologna presents the exhibition Io tra di voi / L’ombra del fotografo, curated by Matteo Giacomelli.

The exhibition Io tra di voi / L’ombra del fotografo presents a selection of over 50 original vintage photographs, by unknown or anonymous photographers, dating from the 1910s to the 1980s, differing in era and context, but all united by the enigmatic presence of the photographer’s shadow. The exhibition, in line with the gallery’s interest in Vernacular Photography in recent years, aims to appreciate the apparent error as the bearer of a new beauty.

The photographer’s shadow is an intrusive presence, beyond all control. It appears in our photos with the same tolerance with which a family might put up with the presence of a slightly odd and intrusive relative. More often, however, as it is considered a fatal flaw in the photograph, it is singled out as the ruin of the photo – that much-coveted memory!

It is striking that no one escapes the photographer’s shadow. We find the North African landscapes of Orientalist photography and friends posing in their party dresses. There are families with their little dog and soldiers in uniform joking about, not to mention the sea with the girlfriend captured on the sand in a daring shot, or the handsome hunk in his swimming trunks on the beach, and much more besides…