Paolo Woods & Gabriele Galimberti

Locked in Beauty

“Italy’s museums are closed and deserted. What do these places look like without visitors? How do the artworks fare without those that appreciate them? We had the unique opportunity to be the only visitors allowed in some of the most iconic museums in Italy. We have tried to pull them out from the darkness they are in now and reinvent them through light. The museums are haunted by the shadows of those that visited them.

Italy has an immense artistic and monumental heritage, which, through tourism, is one of the primary economic resources of the country. Unfortunately, the lockdown has brought the tourism industry to a complete and painful halt. In the coming months, the museums will slowly start to reopen and we felt this could be an excellent way to tell the story of the museums in lockdown.

We travelled the country from north to south and had the privilege to enter classics like The National Archaeological Museum of Naples with its collections of Egyptian, Greek and ancient Roman art to lesser-known gems like the Galleria d’Italia in Vicenza. We spent hours in the shadow of Michelangelo’s David at the Academia in Florence and let ourselves be illuminated by the whiteness of Canova’s marble.

Finding beauty in places that are now closed but will be accessible again and documenting what they look like devoid of visitors is a way to deal with the scope of this crisis and its implications. It is time to go back to contemplating art because it has an urgent message for all of us. Possibly without pushing through a crowd but still in the company of our renewed fellow humans.”

Paolo Woods (1970, Den Haag, The Netherlands) was born of Canadian and Dutch parentage. He grew up in Italy, lived in London, Paris and Haiti and is now based in Florence. Before dedicating himself to documentary photography, Paolo Woods ran a photography gallery and a laboratory. He is devoted to long-term projects that blend photography with investigative journalism. Each project generates an exhibition, a book and a series of publications in international magazines.

His work is regularly featured in the leading international publications. He has had solo exhibitions in France, the US, Italy, Switzerland, China, Spain, Germany, Holland and Haiti, to name a few, and numerous group shows around the world. His pictures are private and public collections, including the Musee de l’Elysée, the French National Library, the FNAC, the Sheik Saud Al-Thani collection, the Servais collection. He has received various prizes, including two World Press Photos. He is a co-founder of Riverboom, a collective and publishing house that explores the limits of the photographic language. He is working on his first documentary film, 'Happy Pills' , co-directed with Arnaud Robert.

Gabriele Galimberti (1977, Arezzo, Italy) is an Italian photographer who frequently lives on airplanes and occasionally in Val di Chiana (Tuscany), where he was born and raised. He has spent the last few years working on long-term documentary photography projects around the world, some of which have become books, such as ‘Toy Stories', ‘In Her Kitchen’, ‘My Couch Is Your Couch’ and 'The Heavens’.

Gabriele’s job consists mainly of telling the stories of people around the world through portraits and short stories, recounting their peculiarities and differences.

Gabriele is currently travelling around the globe, working on both solo and shared projects and on assignments for international magazines and newspapers such as National Geographic, The Sunday Times, Stern, Geo, Le Monde, La Repubblica and Marie Claire. His pictures have been exhibited in shows worldwide, such as the well-known festival Images Vevey, Switzerland, Le Rencontres de la Photographie (des Arles) and the renowned V&A museum in London; they have won the Fotoleggendo Festival award in Rome and the Best In Show prize at the New York Photography Festival. Gabriele recently became a National Geographic photographer and he regularly works for the magazine.