Alla faccia dei sei gradi di separazione

E' ufficiale! Ho finito gli esami del primo anno di Medicina e Chirurgia!!! L'Università mi sta portando tante cose belle, tra cui anche questa di cui parlo in un articolo per Inutile: "Alla faccia dei sei gradi di separazione". Racconta di come la mia nuova vita nel mondo della scienza mi abbia portata vicina ad alcuni dei miei idoli del mondo dell'arte. Coincidenze. 

Qui sotto il pezzo in inglese.

In 2010 I was bored and I decided to become a physician. I passed the admission test thanks to my wide cultural background (at least my History of Art degree was worth something) and I was again a freshman, this time thirty years old in the middle of a horde of rampant teenagers. I felt uncomfortable, more for the "rampant" thing than for the "teenager" thing, but fortunately the fate sent me a friend. We recognized immediately as belongings to the same species. In the midst of girls with Louis Vuitton bags I could not notice that this boy had several tatoos, barely concealed by his t-shirt, and that his ears shew the traces of old piercings, now locked somewhere in a drawer. I felt immediately back to the times at the Art School. But I don't want to talk about him now.One day we were studying biochemistry at his parents house when I noticed a picture on the wall. Anyone who has studied History of Photography would have recognized the style: it was a picture by Guido Guidi. I got a closer look. It was an original print by Guido Guidi, with dedication."What's that picture?" "Oh, It's me when I was a child." "It's by Guido Guidi?" "Do you know him? He's a friend of my parents..."  

Then several minutes of girlish agitation followed. In Italy we have three great photographers LUIGI GHIRRI, GUIDO GUIDI and GABRIELE BASILICO! And I moved from Emilia to Friuli to study medicine to become a friend of a guy with a portrait taken by Guido Guidi?! That would have been enough.
"You know, my father and Guido Guidi lived together, and when I was born Guidi moved to Venice ..."
Sure, it happens all the time, parents need an extra room in the house and they have to send someone away, my parents had to evict Paul McCartney because of me... 

His nonchalance in speaking was obviously due to the fact that my friend had no idea of the importance of Guido Guidi for the rest of the world. However, I rationally understand that there are people for whom Guido Guidi is what my aunt Irma is for me. But that's not all."Even my dad takes pictures." "Oh yeah? Photography is a nice hobby" 

Hobby? What the hell! My friend showed me a book edited by Luigi Ghirri with shots by twenty photographers selected by Ghirri (including himself, the father of my friend and of course Guidi and Basilico): "Viaggio in Italia". Anyone who has studied History of Photography in Italy has heard of that book, and the photos shooted by the father of my friend, beside being very intense, are among the few with human beings.At this point my friend had to introduce me to his father.

 

In short, Umberto Sartorello, wit photographer, amazing person, after the experience of "Viaggio in Italia" decided that the art scene was not for him, he became psychologist clinical psychotherapist, he continued to take pictures, but for himself. This summer his work was on display at Triennale in Milan, with his photos on the main newpapers, but of course he did not know anything about it. It happens to everybody, to have a show at Triennale in Milan without knowing anything about the exhibition, right? Sartorello uses photography also with his patients, for example, sometimes he asks  them to show him three self portrait, taken in three different moments, bu those photos that they would never show to anybody. Terrific, isn't it?Photo CreditsUmberto Sartorello, Untitled, Treviso 1983, "Viaggio in Italia" by Luigi Ghirri.