In “The Tyranny of Convenience,” New York Times contributor Tim Wu wrote recently, “Perhaps our humanity is sometimes expressed in inconvenient actions and time-consuming pursuits. Perhaps this is why, with every advance of convenience, there have always been those who resist it.” Italian photographer Francesco Pergolesi has focused on those who resist the ease of convenience in favor of a commitment to traditional work. He photographed artisans and small shop owners – watchmakers, cobblers, picture-framers – for his series Heroes, and a recent body of work, Tableaux, homes in on the busy work surfaces in those shops. (A detail of Enigma, 2017, from that series, is on our cover.) On view at Catherine Edelman Gallery from May 4 to July 7, his photographs include calculations scrawled on paper, scraps of leather on a work table, a surface strewn with tools, watch faces, or splatters of paint – odes to a dedication to craft, tradition, and work done by hand.
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