Pigozzi, stop! You're too close!

Jean Pigozzi was born in Paris in 1952 and began photographing in the 1960s. International businessman, world-traveler and avid contemporary art lover, over twenty years, he has assembled the largest African contemporary art collection in the world, and more recently has started collecting contemporary Japanese art.

His own work was first exhibited in 1974 at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. In 2008, his photographs were shown at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, in a group exhibition entitled ‘Pigozzi and the Paparazzi’. In 2010 he had an exhibition at the French photography festival, ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ as well as a show at the prestigious Gagosian Gallery in New York.

At Moscow solo exhibition «Pigozzi, not so close!» Jean Pigozzi presents 173 unique images from his own life, a visual diary that he started in the 70’s. It is a pertinent selection of his photographic works, which resonate with a cast of eccentric, often very famous characters caught in their private lives and at social occasions.

Pigozzi has spent the better part of the past four decades cultivating a frank and humorous taxonomy of the world around him. Constantly on the move, he cultivates a dual status as insider and outsider, and he grants us an in-depth look at an inaccessible world. The camera is an extension and defining element of his identity wherever he goes, and with it, Pigozzi creates an unusual brand of high-society portraiture that tells of his penchant for celebrating life rather than exposing celebrity secrets.

He started his famous Pigozzi & Co. series in the 70s — which turned the typical conception of the outsider paparazzo on its head by including himself alongside his subjects — and has now also turned to candid portraiture and quieter moments observed out of the limelight. These images recall the golden era of 1930’s and 40’s society portraiture, when photographers were the seeing eyes of the cultural elite. Pigozzi’s photographs share in this tradition of personal diaries that become part of our cultural heritage. With each candid image, we come to understand Pigozzi’s obsessive need to classify the people and places in his life. This exhibition is part of his effort to catalogue each moment as he lives it, his personal contribution to the growing archives of our collective memory.

Jean Pigozzi was born in Paris in 1952 and began photographing in the 1960s. International businessman, world-traveler and avid contemporary art lover, over twenty years, he has assembled the largest African contemporary art collection in the world, and more recently has started collecting contemporary Japanese art. His own work was first exhibited in 1974 at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. In 2008, his photographs were shown at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, in a group exhibition entitled ‘Pigozzi and the Paparazzi’. In 2010 he had an exhibition at the French photography festival, ‘Les Rencontres d’Arles’ as well as a show at the prestigious Gagosian Gallery in New York.