This publication examines the presence and role of photography in the process of design and the uses of photography as a personal effect of the architect’s consciousness and subconscious.

Focused visual essays investigate the ideas and effects of photography in relation to architecture. For photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992) and architect Aldo Rossi (1931–1997), that relationship consisted of a sympathy between photographer and architect grounded in a shared fascination of the Po Valley as well as a shared belief in the anonymous eye of the photographer and its potential to reveal something new to the architect. Rossi is frank in recognizing that Ghirri’s observation of his work changed his approach to it, whereas the encounter with Rossi and with the world of architecture turned out in many ways to be indispensable to Ghirri in confirming his own attitude and vision.

Paolo Costantini
Texts and photographs by Luigi Ghirri and Aldo Rossi
Graphic design by Electa

Trilingual English-French-Italian edition
Co-published in 1996 with Electa
Softcover, 95 pages