If you walk through the streets of Naples with the attention and curiosity of a true visitor, you see a bit of Mimmo Jodice everywhere, just as you hear the unmistakable jazz of James Senese in the alleys. Today Naples cries twice: that never stereotyped black and white will remain in the memory, children, looks, faces, seas, panoramas, museums, cones of shadow that erase any superfluous noise between Jodice’s shots, and that legendary music of Senese.
Mimmo Jodice was this: from the photos that immortalize statues and mosaics to those in the subway stations up to, above, on the surface, with the urban views of Naples and other contemporary metropolises, where – as he himself wrote – “reality and my inner vision coincide”, passing through a timeless melancholy.
Mimmo Jodice is gone, leaving a silent void, one of those that don’t make a noise but can be felt in the air, like a light that slowly goes out. He taught us that photography can be thought, that a look can become an act of love and that Naples – his Naples – will continue to speak to us through the light, shadows and silences of his images.
Self-taught, born in the beating heart of the Sanità district in March 1934, Jodice has crossed the decades with the calm of someone who knows how to see beyond appearance. In the 1960s his lens crossed paths with the greats of contemporary art – Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Sol LeWitt – but he always remained faithful to his land and his unique gaze. The Views of Naples and the Anamnesi series, in which he portrayed the masterpieces of the Archaeological Museum, remain milestones of Italian photography: visions suspended between the real and the sacred, where the city becomes soul.
Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, Jodice has trained generations of photographers, transmitting to them not only technique but the ability to “feel” light. His career is dotted with awards – from the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize of the Accademia dei Lincei in 2003 to his degree honoris causa in Architecture from the Federico II University in 2006 – up to the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettresreceived in 2011 from the French Ministry of Culture, where he was loved and respected as a poet of vision.
Always next to him is his wife Angela, his companion in life and in his gaze. He had donated a large part of his world to Capodimonte: the sky Avant-gardes in Naplesthe Eden projects, The invisible city, Transitsand even his darkroom – that room where light became a story.
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His latest exhibition, Napoli Metafisica, was a return home, to the heart of the Maschio Angioino. And it is there, on Thursday 30 October, that the city will be able to say goodbye to him for the last time: from 12pm to 4.30pm, in the funeral home wanted by Mayor Manfredi and his family. A final hug between Mimmo Jodice and his Naples, which will continue to shine in his shots like an eternal breath.
Goodbye also to James Senese
Naples today also mourns James Senese, icon of Neapolitan jazz and funk, at the age of 80. Extraordinarily talented saxophonist, founder of the Showmen and Napoli Centrale and historic member of Pino Daniele’s band.
James Senese leaves behind an immense musical heritage, which has ignited the spark in generations of artists and lovers of jazz and funk, in Italy and beyond the borders. His music will continue to vibrate as an authentic emblem of creative freedom, visceral passion and Neapolitan identity. Exactly like Mimmo Jodice’s photographs.
