Luigi Ghirri, Cardboard Landscapes, 2020

In March 1975, on a visit to New York, the esteemed art historian Arturo Carlo Quintavalle hand-delivered a unique representation of Luigi Ghirri’s work to John Szarkowski, director of MoMA’s Department of Photography at the time. Among the items Quintavalle donated to the Museum on behalf of the artist was a handbound album of 111 photographs from the early 1970s titled Paesaggi di cartone, or Cardboard Landscapes. The volume was then deposited in the departmental collection, where it remained, out of sight, for nearly four decades.