Slipcase back and front

This uncommonly large format photobook is the result of the collaboration between Italian photographer Luciano Ferri and innovative art director and graphic designer Dante Bighi.

The linen-bound book is housed in a black linen slipcase with the logo of the Comune di Copparo embossed in white. The same logo is applied in black to the spine of the book. Copparo is Dante Bighi’s home town in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy.

The book celebrates the beauty of the landscape and people of Copparo. Initially photographing from a distance, Ferri comes ever closer to his subjects, page by page. His mostly high contrast and grainy images are forced into an unusually long landscape format. The photographs appear almost too large for the page, as if trying to escape their given space. And just when you get used to this panoramic format, Dante Bighi surprises once again with top-opening gatefolds, or double gatefolds with a span of two meters. This pushing of the boundaries and expectations of a photobook is an absolute delight.

A visual celebration of the panoramic view, and a wonderful example of how an innovative art director can work hand in hand with a creative photographer, elevating each other’s work.

Introduction by Romeo Sgarbanti

Poems by Corrado Govoni & Filippo De Pisis

Published by Comune di Copparo (Ferrara) 1972

Dante Bighi Study Center: www.centri-contemporaneo-er.it

Hard cover with slipcase

55.4 x 18.5cm

154 pages. 93 pages of regular gatefolds with 5 top gatefolds and 1 double-page gatefold

Cover back and front

Top gatefold

Double-page gatefold