An attentive and engaged audience filled the halls of the Hoffmann Museum on Sunday, January 5th for the event titled “Dietro L’Obiettivo” a public conversation with photographer Roberto Strano, the first artist to exhibit his work in the museum’s newly established photography gallery. The event, conceived and curated by Maurizio Di Falco, represented not only an opportunity to retrace Strano’s personal and professional journey, but also a moment of reflection on photography as a tool for storytelling, testimony, and memory.
Alongside him, in a close and profound dialogue, Giuseppe Cicozzetti, a Sicilian photographer and art critic known for the project Scriptphotography, offered a lucid and critical look at Strano’s photographic production and the contemporary role of the image in the digital age.
During the talk, Cicozzetti highlighted the urgent need for a photographic language that goes beyond aesthetics, capable of interrogating reality. He emphasized how, in Strano’s work, narrative coherence and the ethics of the gaze are central components. The photographer, for his part, recounted episodes from his field experiences, speaking of photography as a form of listening and responsibility.
“It’s not the images that are important,” Strano said, “but the stories they hold. My job is to know how to welcome them.”
Roberto Strano: A Photographer with an International Ambience
Born in Caltagirone in 1973, Roberto Strano is today considered one of the most sensitive and consistent reportage photographers on the Italian scene. He has numerous projects under his belt in Italy and abroad, with reportages in Brazil, Tunisia, the Balkans, Palestine, India, and other places often marginalized or marked by social tensions.
His approach is profoundly human: Strano doesn’t simply photograph, but engages with stories, immerses himself in contexts, and restores dignity to his subjects. His photography is characterized by deep blacks, essential shots, and a discreet yet engaging presence.
Among his best-known works is the photography book “Storie di Sud,” published in 2024, which recounts the complexity and contradictions of Southern Italy. The book has been presented in several Italian cities, including Milan and Trapani, and has attracted critical acclaim.
The exhibition: a journey into the soul of places
The works on display at the Hoffmann Museum, inaugurated on December 26, offer a glimpse of Strano’s most recent work. Photographs that speak of identity, hardship, hope, and resilience. Images that are never rhetorical, but tell stories without overwhelming them.
The exhibition, meticulously curated by Maurizio Di Falco, transforms the museum’s rooms into an emotional journey that invites visitors to pause, observe, and ask questions. In this sense, the January 5th event provided the ideal setting to explore the meaning and implications of this work, in an open dialogue with the public.
A museum that bets on photography
The Hoffmann Museum thus confirms its position as a vital and courageous space, open to fine art photography and contemporary visual culture. With this first exhibition, Caltagirone joins the ranks of cities promoting photography as an autonomous language capable of building collective memory.
The encounter with Roberto Strano was not just a cultural event, but a shared experience, an opportunity to reflect on the power of images and the value of the gaze.
