Czech Republic – A day dedicated to master of photography, Vittorio Storaro

Prague dedicated a day to Italian master of photography Vittorio Storaro, who was invited by the Eleutheria Foundation to speak at several initiatives focusing on his artistic production, organised in conjunction with the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague. The lectio magistralis of the three-times Oscar winner for photography entitled “Vittorio Storaro e la cinematografia digitale” (“Vittorio Storaro and Digital Cinematography”) will be delivered in the auditorium of the Prague Library and will be dedicated to the new method of recording images in motion as a flow of digital data that has revolutionised the whole world of cinema production. At the end of the lecture, Vittorio Storaro will be awarded the AMU Gold Medal for his artistic achievements by the Dean of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), Professor Zdeněk Holý. The award ceremony will be followed by the screening of Woody Allen’s latest film “Cafè society”, of which Storaro was director of photography. The film was presented as a non-competing film at the last Cannes Film Festival and was produced with digital technology, which is receiving wide acclaim among international film critics. The evening’s programme will continue at 6:30 p.m. with the finissage of the photography exhibition entitled ‘Civiltà romana’ (Roman Civilization) at the Clam-Gallas Palace: a visual journey guiding visitors beyond the stage setting and into the Master’s personal photographic world, permanently focused on the “enigma of vision”. The photographs in the ‘Civiltà romana’ exhibition constitute the apex of a project that was launched in the late ‘80s when Storaro visited Italy, Syria, Turkey, Greece and other countries that once belonged to the Roman Empire, to document the ruins and thus preserve the magnificence of antiquity for future generations. The monuments were photographed through the double exposure technique, a challenging achievement prior to the advent of digital photography. The cycle of events is organised by the Eleutheria Foundation of the Razetto brothers, Augusto and Ottaviano, the City of Prague, the 1^st Municipality of Prague, the Academy of Cinematography, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts of Prague (FAMU), the Italian-Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.