Franco Fontana

Fontana is a Modena born Italian photographer internationally known for his abstract colour landscapes. He has been said to have been one of the forefathers of colour photography. In 1961 he joined a local amateur photography club in Modena. This experience would go on to be a turning point in his career, eventually leading Fontana to have his first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Società Fotografica Subalpina, Turin and at the Galleria della Sala di Cultura in Modena in 1968. Since then, he has participated in more than 400 group and solo exhibitions.

Notably Fontana has worked on campaigns for prominent brands including but not limited to Sony, Versace and Volkswagen. Some of his biggest achievements include winning the 1989 Tokyo Photographer of Japan and becoming the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival.

Basilicata, 1985

This photo taken in Fontana's homeland is a prime example of his unique style. Fontana's photography is defined by Film Tinting, the process of adding colour to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion. The faux colour appearance of the photo is what turns a simple landscape shot into a far more interesting abstract piece. It could be said that Fontana's work has the appearance of a painting. Like most of Fontana's work this photo only uses primary and secondary colours, green and blue. Although many pieces use more unnatural to the landscape colours such as red or yellow.

The subject of this photo is beautiful in its simpicity, a light green path amidst the rolling hills of dark green. The colour leads right up to the horizon meeting with the fluffy white clouds of a blue sky. The horizon and the immense sky often has a lot of meaning attached to it when thought of in a biblical sense, the horizon opening up to the heavens.

My Work

Quicky I realised the immense task it is to find landscapes fit for this project, therefore I tried out the editing process on a shot I had taken a couple of week earlier in the yorkshire dales. Happy with the final image, I roped my mum into driving me into the peak district to find some more landscapes to photograph and eventually edit into the style of franco fontana.

The Yorkshire Dales- the first attempt.

f/9.0 ISO:100 1/100

Edited on photoshop, selecting layers and filling them with low opacity colour.

The High peak, Derbyshire

F/10.0 ISO:100 1/125

f/7.1 ISO:200 1/400

f/10.0 ISO:100 1/200

f/ 11.0 ISO:100 1/1215

f/11.0 ISO:100 1/250

f/8 ISO:200 1/320

f/7.1 ISO:100 1/250

Denbighshire, Wales

While on a narrow boat holiday in North Wales I realised that a lot of the landscape would work well for this project, so while cruising along the canal I took these.

f/5.6 ISO:100 1/200

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