Franco Fontana (b. 1933, Modena) is celebrated as one of Italy’s most influential photographers, renowned for transforming ordinary landscapes into vibrant abstract compositions through bold color and minimal form.
Vision & Visual Philosophy
Fontana emerged during a time when fine art photography was still dominated by black and white. He embraced color early—once saying:
Photography should not reproduce the visible; it should make the invisible visible.
He often works from telephoto viewpoints, compressing terrain and flattening form to create chromatic bands of fields, sky, and architecture—shaping large-scale landscapes into abstract imagery.
Camera Gear: Proven Choices for Saturated Colour
Fontana’s equipment was practical yet powerful, enabling his signature visual style:
-
35 mm Canon film camera (Canon Eos 1), paired with just three focal lengths:
-
17–35 mm zoom
-
35–300 mm zoom
-
14 mm prime for wide, abstract geometry
These lenses helped him control perspective, isolate color planes, and sense structure across the scene.
 |
| Canon Eos 1 |
-
Film Stocks:
-
Kodachrome 25 and Ektachrome 64 slide films—favored for their saturated tones, archival quality, and color fidelity.
-
Fontana routinely underexposed by one stop to further intensify color saturation.
-
-
Technique:
-
Avoided filters—choosing instead to control color and form through exposure and composition.
-
Often shot handheld, embracing natural light and sweeping geometry to guide his compositions.
The Work & Its Legacy
Fontana’s most famous series include:
-
Puglia and Basilicata landscapes—sun‑lit farmlands reduced to rhythmic color bands.
-
Asfalto—street surfaces photographed from above, turning patches of asphalt into geometric textures.
-
Urban and seascape studies in Ibiza, Havana, Los Angeles—each stripped into formal, graphic statements of hue and line.
Why Fontana’s System Worked
-
Simplified toolset meant creative clarity: lenses chosen for scale and color impact.
-
Slide film and underexposure provided maximal saturation without manipulation.
-
Graphic vision first—gear served the idea, not vice versa.
Final Reflection
Fontana’s photography isn’t about documenting the visible—it’s about turning light, color, and form into visual language. Through a humble Canon film body and a few precision lenses, he reshaped how we see real landscapes—transforming them into poetic abstractions infused with emotional resonance.
Books featuring Franco Fontana
America : see it on Amazon
