PROFESSIONAL DREAMERS

 

In their search for wanting to learn more of the ‘human condition’ it seems fortuitous that Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone and Remigia Spagnolo should meet.  Tiziana and Gianni had already felt a need to document women’s’ role in society and how, today, a woman could achieve her aspirations. 

The combination of the transmission of knowledge and the studies of how people achieve their dreams is how the concept of a photographic project ‘Professional Dreamers’ was created.  This project wanted to focus specifically on Women and their dreams.  A unique project that brings together photographs and psychological analysis.

With the humanistic approach to their photography, it was important that Tiziana and Gianni could find the right subjects and themes that could express visually the desires and dreams of the women.  The theme of ‘Women in Society’ has always been a well-documented subject and is particularly pertinent these days.  The idea was not to show how women can be successful and to achieve high ranking posts not open normally to women but to illustrate how, with a dream, albeit small, a woman can find a métier that pleases and inspires and is what She has searched and dreamt of, whether unconsciously or not.  

Having researched and found their subjects, Tiziana and Gianni photographed over the last four years a group of women, each with different skills and jobs.  With the natural curiosity, instinctive of photographers in the search of knowledge, they were able to find these women, each with an intimate story to tell of how their inner ambitions for wanting to learn or develop a skill, their challenges and choices led them to the profession they are in today.  Remigia, having researched extensively dream mechanisms would interview them and interpret their professional paths in the light of these studies thus creating a link between the visual and the psychological.

This exhibition brings together a new artistic perspective of photographs and words interacting with each other.  Texts thoughtful and insightful, photographs taken with respect and sensitivity.  

Photographs that go beyond documentary photography to look beneath the surface, entering the sphere of women’s inner ambitions and questioning the meaning of the dream highlighted by the psychological analysis on each woman’s professional path.

A new look at the valorization of a woman’s role, her intimate aspirations and the search for psychological well-being through the realization of a Professional Dream.

India Dhargalkar, Curator

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THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S EYE, THE PSYCHOLOGIST’S GAZE ON THE PROFESSIONAL DREAM

PROFESSIONAL DREAMERS is a photographic project on women from different countries and backgrounds, who have turned a dream into a professional reality even at the cost of radical life-changing. Women who have made professional choices, sometime daring and courageous, that allow them to express themselves in a job freely chosen and satisfying their search for the psychophysical well-being that comes from practising a profession they enjoy.

We have chosen a non-traditional storytelling: in concept, because it brings photography and psychology together; in content, because it tackles the theme of enhancing the role and talents of women by entering into the intimate sphere of inner aspirations; and in form, because it explores the theme of dreams through an unprecedented combination: the photographer’s eye and the psychologist’s gaze.

The Photographer’s Eye searches in reality for traces of the dream behind the choice of a particular career and brings out a visual representation of the professional dream and its realisation in the daily life of an art, a craft, a profession.

The Psychologist’s Gaze adds to the photographs, the analysis of the dream through the interviews collected, disclosing the influence of symbols, archetypes, feelings, emotions, sensations and values that shape the dream even where the subject is unaware of it.

The interaction of photographs and words brings out the value of the professional dream as a tool for self-realisation and the development of unconventional talents and genius.

                                                          Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone, photographers

                                                          Remigia Spagnolo, pychologist

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THE EXHIBITION ITINERARY

The exhibition opens in the Monumental Atrium with the portraits of the group of 15 Women currently involved in the PROFESSIONAL DREAMERS project. All of them have been photographed half-face with the intention of not fully revealing their features and to allude to the concepts of conscious and unconscious, visible and invisible.

The exhibition itinerary continues in the Corridor of the Chamber where the Photographer’s Eye and the Psychologist’s Gaze develop in parallel, on different levels, reproposing in the setting and in the scenography, a double point of view on the professional dream of the women photographed.

Vertically, on the walls, the photographs and the texts on the veils draw attention to a particular aspect of the dream that the photographers wanted to highlight, disclosing the Photographer’s eye.

Horizontally, in the texts displayed on the tables in the centre of the Corridor, the Psychologist’s Gaze interprets each woman’s professional journey and discloses her dream.  

PROFESSIONAL DREAMERS is an ongoing project open to other women.

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THE AUTHORS

Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone

Independent photographers, they have built their careers on humanistic reportage around the world.  They published over 25 books internationally; their photographs have been published in the international press and exhibited in Europe, Japan and USA. They are based in Turin and Paris.

Their vision based on the observation of daily lives, evolved over the years from a documentary approach to a photographic research that explores intellectual themes and concepts, without however distorting the genre of documentary photography.  A common thread links all their subjects: the human.

They are distinguished by long-term photographic projects on specific topics that have resulted in books and travelling exhibitions. Among their long-term works: Esprit Nomade (2005/2009), exhibited for the first time in 2010 by the French Senate at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris and Transmissions (2011/2019), a eight years long work on the transmission of knowledge, three books and a travelling exhibition in Italy, France and Japan.

www.baldizzone.com

Remigia Spagnolo

Psychologist, author and university contract lecturer on topics related to professional dreams, personal growth and leadership. She has carried out an independent research project on the dream based on interviews with well-known professionals from business, art, science, sport and literature. These interviews are published in her book Professional Dreamers, Sognatori di Professione (2013) . On the theme of the professional dream she has also published the books Un Ignoto Promettente; Appuntamento con il tuo sogno professionale; Il GPS del Sogno. Progetta, Realizza, Racconta.

 In 2017, he started the Professional Dreamers Project with the dual aim of helping workers and organisations realise their professional dreams and spreading through professional engagement values of responsibility, competence and personal growth. In addition to teaching and research she also carries out training and coaching activities.

www.remigiaspagnolo.it

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THE CURATOR

India Dhargalkar

Born in London, India Dhargalkar studied history of art at Christie’s Fine Arts School. India went on to work for 10 years as Senior Expert and then Director of the Photographs Department of Christie’s Fine Art Auctioneers.  After moving to Paris, France, she became art consultant for several international private art collectors, museums and institutions.  In 2001 India helped to establish The Print Room for the prestigious photo agency Magnum Photos in Paris.  The Print Room was to become the Magnum Gallery, where she directed exhibitions and print sales.  India is also a photography historian, lectures and writes on photography as well as curating photography exhibitions. For 18 years, India has been the Art Advisor/Curator for CHANEL Nexus Hall in Tokyo. Travelling between Japan and Europe, India helps to co-ordinate and curate the photograph exhibitions at Chanel’s exclusive exhibition space in Ginza, Tokyo including the Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone Transmissions exhibition.