The Animals
November 5 – 29, 2009
Born in Perugia, Italy, and now residing in London, Giacomo Brunelli creates photographs of animals, both living and dead, using a Miranda Sensomat camera from 1968 that once belonged to his father. The Animals is a series of images that are dramatic, powerful and intriguing, suggesting elements of both comedy and tragedy.
Shot in Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio in Central Italy, Brunelli’s takes his photographs during daily morning walks (when the light is best) and his subjects are those randomly encountered along the way. He prints his black and white images by hand in a makeshift darkroom.
“I call the way I work ‘animal-focused street photography’,” says Brunelli, adding “When I was a child I used to spend time playing with animals and I think that is why I push the lens often to its closest point of focus, almost touching the subject and forcing flight or fight from the animal, which is when l then photograph the animal´s reaction.”
Giacomo Brunelli (b. Perugia, Italy, 1977) graduated with a degree in International Communications in 2002. His work has been exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery (Uk), The New Art Gallery Walsall (Uk), The Barbican Centre (Uk), BlueSky Gallery, Portland (Usa), Format Festival, Derby (Uk), Triennial of Photography Hamburg (Germany), Nordic Light Festival (Norway), Noorderlicht Photofestival (The Netherlands), StreetLevel Glasgow (Uk), Photofusion, London (Uk), Delhi PhotoFestival (India), Fotofestiwal Lodz (Poland), Athens Photo Festival (Greece), Daegu PhotoBiennal (South Korea), Angkor PhotoFestival (Cambodia), Tabernacle (London, Uk), Griffin Museum (Boston, Usa) and at commercial galleries such as Peter Fetterman Gallery (Santa Monica, Usa), Robert Morat Galerie (Berlin, Germany), Galerie Camera Obscura (Paris, France), Arden & Anstruther (Petworth, Uk), Galleria Belvedere (Milan, Italy).He has won the Sony World Photography Award, the Gran Prix Lodz, Poland and the Magenta Foundation “Flash Forward 2009”. He has also been featured widely in the art and photography press including BBC (Uk), The Guardian (Uk), The Telegraph (Uk), Eyemazing (Holland), European Photography (Germany), B&W Magazine (Usa), Creative Review (Uk), Foto+Video (Russia). His work is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (Usa), The New Art Gallery Walsall, Uk Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Japan) and Portland Art Museum (Usa).Brunelli has published “The Animals” (2008) and “Eternal London” (2014) by Dewi Lewis Publishing, “Self Portraits” (2017) and “Hamburg” (2021) by Editions Bessard, “New York” (2020) by Skinnerboox and “Venice” has been self-published by TantoPress in 2022. In 2012, he was commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery to do the “Eternal London” series and in 2015 by the Deichtorhallen to produce “Hamburg”.