Roberto Vignoli

Roberto Vignoli (born 1958, Rome, Italy) is a photographer who lives and works in Rome, known in both documentary and artistic circles. His photographs are inspired by cultural anthropology, architecture and environment. He is also a published writer and poet.

Early life and education

After attending high school at the Aviation College in Rome, Vignoli went on to study anthropology at La Sapienza University. He learned English at the Central School of London, earning an advanced-level certificate. He developed an early interest in photography, having shot his first documentary images in Europe and Africa when he was a teenager. He went on to study photography with Roberto Rocchi.

Career

Documentary photography

Vignoli has worked for some of the most important photographic agencies in the world, such as Image Bank (now part of Getty Images),) Grazie Neri ^[it], Granata Press ^[it], AGF and Luz. From 1985 to 2012, he also worked for the Italian weekly newspaper, L’Espresso, having spent ten of those years in the Photo Office, where he was curator of the foreign and cultural pages. His work has been published in Il Messaggero, L’Unità, Il Tirreno, Informazioni Editoriali, Qui giovani ^[it], Penthouse, Successo, NoiDonne ^[it], Italiani, L’Informatore Librario, Immaginazionem ^[it] (Manni Editore), and Presenza Taurisanese.

He has been collaborating with the newspaper La Ragione since 2021.

Art photography

Vignoli's photos have been shown widely in Italy, France, Germany, Argentina, Cuba, the United States, Turkey, Hungary and Australia, in both group and solo exhibitions.

Vignoli was included in “MACRO Asilo” at The Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO),^[1] curated by Giorgio de Finis and “On the Road” at the Piomonti Arte Contemporanea^[2] curated by Pio Monti ^[it], shows that also included Joseph Beuys, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Joseph Kosuth, Enzo Cucchi, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat.

Solo exhibitions have taken place at Inboccalupo Gallery (Buenos Aires);^[3] Mondo Bizzarro Gallery^[4] (Rome); Galeria Carmen Montilla (Havana); the Chambre de Commerce de Marseille; Museo Laboratorio d'Arte Contemporanea^[5] and Casa delle Letterature ^[it][6] (both Rome); and TandM Arts Studio (Philadelphia, PA, USA).

Vignoli's work has also been collected by museums for permanent installations such as his panoramas: Malecon (Museo Bilotti Ruggi d’Aragona, Cosenza, Italy); Sioux Portraits Panorama (Buechel Lakota Memorial Museum, St. Francis South Dakota); and Aboriginal Portraits Panorama (Redfern Community Centre, Sydney, Australia).

Books (writing, poetry and photographs)

Vignoli's photographic activities have always left space for his passion for literature. He has published novels: Un lampadario nell’anello di fumo, Bastogi Editrice Italiana, 1992 and Il soffio sulla spalla, (Bastogi Editrice Italiana, 2006); short stories: Se un altro fosse me,(Bastogi Editrice Italiana, 2008) and 5 fotoromanzi d’amore sfrenato, Edizioni Calliope Italia, 2011); and poetry: L’inverno sono gli atri, Edizioni Ensemble 2016. He also translated Jean Poirier's Storia dell’etnologia from French into Italian.^[7]

Vignoli has collaborated with other artists as in the book Fondi, percorsi d’acqua (Associazione Libero de Libero, 2016), where his photographs complement the poems of Claudio Damiani. His photographs appear in Accendi una finestra (Robin Editions, Torino, 2024), with poetry by Claudia Quintieri.