Color Unbound
Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome, presents “Chromotherapia: The Feel-Good Color Photography”, an exhibition curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Sam Stourdzé to celebrate the groundbreaking impact of color photography through the gaze of 20 artists.
In 1907, the first industrial color photograph emerged with the autochrome, created by the Lumière brothers. For a long time dismissed as unserious, color photography has long allowed artists to push creative boundaries and reimagine genres, playing with the real, surreal and hyperreal.
Guy Bourdin. Vogue Paris, May 1984 © The Guy Bourdin Estate 2025. Courtesy of Louise Alexander Gallery
William Wegman. Ski Patrol, 2017 © Galerie George-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois
Martin Parr. Ramsgate, England, 1996. From Common Sense © Magnum Photos
Erwin Blumenfeld. Untitled, 1945. Variation of Vogue U.S. cover June 1951. © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld 2025.
The exhibition shows the work of pioneers and rule-breakers, Martin Parr’s satirical still lifes and William Wegman and Walter Chandoha’s photos of dogs and cats as icons with human-like qualities. In the exhibition, color becomes a subject as much as a tool, offering a dazzling reinterpretation of the world filled with joy, beauty and irony.
© Ruth Ossai. Rushemy Botter Spring Summer 18 Men’s Campaign 'Fish or Fight', July 2013
Walter Chandoha. New Jersey, 1962 © Walter Chandoha Archive
© Miles Aldridge. Five Girls in a Car #1, 2013
The exhibition “Chromotherapia: The Feel-Good Color Photography” is on view at Villa Medici in Rome, Italy, until June 9th.
