Paolo Patrizi

Paolo Patrizi

Paolo Patrizi’s (Rome,1965) photography career began in London and brought him to Tokyo in 2005. After almost ten years, Patrizi has returned to Rome and Ilex is proud to present his award-winning series, Starlings and A Disquieting Intimacy.

Awards
Migrations, Daily Life, Second Prize, World Press Photo, Amsterdam, Holland 2013
Migrations, Piclet Prize for Contemporary African Photography, Basel, Switzerland 2012
Migrations, Award of Excellence, POYi, USA, 2012
Migrations, Taylor Wessing Prize, UK, 2012

Solo Exhibitions
A Disquieting Intimacy, ILEX Gallery at 10b Photography, Rome, Italy 2015
Starlings, ILEX at the Galleria MARTE, Rome, Italy 2011

Collective Exhibitions
Taylor Wessing Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK 2012
Festival Internazionale di Fotografia, Rome, Italy 2011
Angkor Photo Festival, Cambodia, 2010
Sony World Photography Award, France 2010
World Press Photo Awards, worldwide 2009
Lens Culture International Exposure Awards, 2009

Permanent Collection 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
private

www.paolopatrizi.com 

Many thousands of birds wheeling through the sky above Rome at sunset prepare to roost together for the night, providing both breathtaking aerial displays and a public nuisance in the form of noise and bird droppings.A starling flock like this is called a ‘murmuration’, a word that perfectly describes the rustle of thousands of pairs of wings. The coordinated evolutions of large flocks of starlings at dusk is one of the great wonders of nature. Such flocks remain incredibly cohesive under attack by predators, never leaving a bird isolated. When attacked, the birds will spread apart; at other times, when the flock is making a directional change, they will merge closer together. They perform these incredible manoeuvres but they are always integrated with the flock, no matter how drastically they change the flock’s shape and intensity. After an attack has taken place, and the flock has expanded, it can regroup quickly because cohesion does not depend on the distance between the birds. Interaction is based upon the number of their fellow neighbours rather than their distance apart, which implies complex cognitive capabilities in these birds.These findings may have implications for the study of other animal groups and indeed human behaviour. It is thought that the birds’ behaviour could reflect the herding responses in human beings – with a particular eye on stock-market panics. Individual people coordinate and imitate each other to create collective phenomena. People are extremely influenced by their neighbours, by fashions and fads.

- Paolo Patrizi

 

The works of this powerful series break away from the stereotypical and often narrow perception of the portrait. In the eerie makeshift atmosphere of sex camps, Patrizi presents an intimate study about the life of the women of Benin City working on the outskirts of Rome.

In a market strongly segmented by gender, age, educational qualifications and population shortages with immigrants, Italy’s underground economy attracts immigrant workers providing them jobs without regulations – blurring the line between legitimate and illegal enterprises.

For over 20 years, the women of Benin City in Nigeria have traveled to Italy to work in the sex trade. Every year, successful ones recruit younger girls to follow in their steps. Most migrant women, including those who end up in the sex industry, have made a clear decision to leave home and take their chances overseas. They are headstrong and ambitious women who migrate in order to escape conflict, persecution, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and other situations that affect their habitat and livelihood. They have chosen a variety of ways to exploit their personal assets. These range from being erotic dancers, to real contact work of varying levels of intimacy.

The 2010-2013 series has won numerous awards, including World Press Photo, Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and PoYi.