Franco Fontana

Franco Fontana (9 December 1933 – 29 August 2026) was an Italian photographer. He was best known for his abstract colour landscapes.

Early life and career Franco Fontana was born in Modena on 9 December 1933. He started taking photographs in the 1950s when he was working as a decorator in a furniture showroom. In 1961, he joined a local amateur club in Modena. The experience would be a turning point in his career, and Fontana went on to have his first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Società Fotografica Subalpina, Turin

His first book, Skyline, was published in 1978 in France by Contrejour and in Italy by Punto e Virgola with a text by Helmut Gernsheim.

Fontana was the art director of the Toscana Fotofestival.

Style and critical reception Fontana was especially interested in the interplay of colours. His early innovations in color photography in the 1960s were stylistically disruptive. According to art critic Giuliana Scimé, Fontana "destroyed all the structures, practices, and technical choices within the Italian tradition." Fontana used a 35mm cameras, and as noted by Iwan Zahar, deployed distant viewpoints with telephoto lenses to flatten contours in a landscape of crops and fields into bands of intense, saturated colour. This is an effect that Franco Lefèvre has described as 'dialectical landscapism'.

Aside from the rural landscape, Fontana applied his graphic sensibility to other subjects: city architecture, portraiture, fashion, still-life, and the nude.

Fontana's photographs have also been used as album cover art for records produced by the ECM Records jazz label.

Death Fontana died on 29 August 2026, at the age of 92.

Permanent collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York The Israel Museum Kemper Art Museum Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Amon Carter Museum of American Art Rose Art Museum Richard M. Ross Art Museum George Eastman Museum Williams College Museum of Art Minneapolis Institute of Art Princeton University Art Museum National Museum, Beijing Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Latina Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art University of Michigan Museum of Art Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Publications Modena una città, text by Pier Paolo Preti, Ruggeri, Modena 1970 Terra da leggere, text by Pier Paolo Preti, IKS editrice, Modena 1974 Bologna, Il volto della città, text by Pier Luigi Cervellati, Ricardo Franco Levi Editore, Modena 1975 Laggiù gli uomini, text by Enzo Biagi, Ricardo Franco Levi Editore, Modena 1976 Sky-line, text by Helmut Gernsheim, Punto e Virgola, Modena e Contrejour, Paris 1978 Presenze veneziane, text by Achille Bonito Oliva e Angelo Schwarz, Maurizio Rossi Editore, Modena 1979 Paesaggio urbano, text by Angelo Schwarz, Selezione d’Immagini, Milan 1980 Presenza-Assenza, text by Giuliana Scimé, Selezione d’Immagini, Milan 1982 I grandi fotografi, text by Achille Bonito Oliva e Giuliana Scimé, Fabbri Editori, Milan 1983 Full Color, text by Guy Mandery, Contrejour, Paris 1983 I primi dieci ristoranti e alberghi d’Italia, texts by Giovanni Agnelli e Giovanni Nuvoletti, La chiave d’oro Editrice, Modena 1983 Los Grandes Fotografos, Ediciones Orbis, Barcelona 1983 Capire domani 1933-1983, Edizione Stet, Florence 1983 Meisterfotos Gestalten, text by Pier Paolo Preti, Verlag Laterna Magica, Munich 1983 Piscina, Diapress, Milan 1984 EU 42, text by Paolo Portoghesi, Rondanini, Rome 1984 Franco Fontana, Nippon Geijutsu, Tokyo 1984 I dogi della moda, Associazione Comitato Veneziamoda, 1984 Disney World Epcot Center, text by Roy Disney, Edizioni Panini, Modena 1986 Lui lavora lì, text by Liborio Termine, Edizioni Panini, Modena 1986 Università Oggi, Edizione Opere Universitarie, Rome, 1986 San Marino e il gioco delle apparenze, text by Sergio Zavoli, Cassa di Risparmio di RSM, San Marino, 1986 Imola Imola, text by Aureliano Bassani, Edizioni Cerim, Imola, 1987 Franco Fontana, text by Giuliana Scimé, Umberto Allemandi Editore, Turin, 1987 Franco Fontana, Rebecchi, Modena, 1988 Il corpo scoperto. Il nudo in fotografia, text by Daniela Palazzoli, Idea Books, Milan 1988 L’universo nel piatto, Rebecchi, Modena, 1989 I nudi di Franco Fontana in Polaroid, text by Liborio Termine, Aleph, Turin, 1989 Invito a Bologna, text by Athos Vianelli, Magnus, Udine 1989 Il carnevale di Viareggio, text by Alberto Bevilacqua, Mondadori Arte, Milan, 1989 Kaleidoscope, text by Christian Caujolle e Franco Lefèvre, Edizioni Arte, Udine, 1990 Franco Fontana è venuto una volta a Torino e l’ha vista così, Rebecchi, Modena, 1990 Sakura, sogni paralleli, Cassa di Risparmi di Vignola, 1990 40 immagine inedite di Franco Fontana, text by Mauro Corradini e Giandomenico Semeraro, Edizione del Museo Ken Damy, Brescia, 1990 Modena Effetto Notte, Graphis, Bologna, 1990 Viaggio in Sicilia, Graphis, Bologna, 1992 Modena effetto notte, Graphis, Bologna, 1992 Universo nel piatto 2, Graphis, Bologna, 1993 Aemilia, text by Candido Bonvicini, Edizioni Biblos, Padua 1993 Landscape moments, Rebecchi, Modena, 1994 Franco Fontana, text by Flaminio Gualdoni, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 1994 Le ricette erotiche, text by G. Bolognesi, Graphis, Bologna, 1995 Franco Fontana Landscape, edizione limitata a cento copie, Ken Damy Polimedia, Brescia, 1996 100 fiori, simboli, messaggi di libertà, text by Lello Piazza, Mondadori, Milan, 1997 Janua Urbis, A. Pizzi, 1997 Polaroid, text by Francesco Guccini, Motta Fotografia, Milan, 1997 Modena ieri e oggi, text by Michele Smargiassi, Associazione Giuseppe Panini, Modena, 1998 Franco Fontana antologica, text by Giorgio Cortenova e Walter Guadagnini, Leonardo Arte, Milan, 2000 Sorpresi nella luce americana, text by Giampiero Mughini, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2000 Emerging Bodies Collezione Polaroid, Edizioni Stemmle, Zurich, 2000 Emilia Romagna da gustare, text by Antonio Piccinardi, Giorgio Mondadori Editore, Milan, 2000 Il paesaggio che verrà, text by Piero Angela e Giuseppe Pederiali, Panini, Modena 2000 Historic Route 66, with Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Skira, Milan, 2002 Franco Fontana, a cura di Giovanna Calvenzi, testo di Massimo Mussini, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2003 Paesaggio, with Mario Giacomelli, text by Federico Zeri, Edizioni Gribaudo, Asti, 2003 Antiche penombre in controluce, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena, 2003 Retrospettiva, text by Allan D. Coleman e Giuliana Scimé, Edizioni Logos, Modena, 2003 Appia Regina viarum, text by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Trnsmec, 2003 Paesaggi con Andrea Micheli Galleria degli animali, text by Renato Barilli e Giorgio Celli, Mazzotta Editore, Milan, 2005 Appunti siciliani, text by Liborio Termine e Gianni Riotta, Federico Motta Editore, Milan, 2006 La via Emilia, text by Francesco Guccini e Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Atlante, Bazzano, 2006 Il tempo fissato. Pietre e colori a Morgantina, text by Vincenzo Consolo e Liborio Termine, Ed. Università Kore, 2006 Alassio, Comune di Alassio, 2008 Fabbriche di sassi, with Luigi Ottani, Anna Prandi, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2008 Modena effetto notte, reloaded, Ed. italiana e inglese, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2009 Paesaggi a confronto, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena, 2010 Donne, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, Modena, 2010 Grandi autori, Fotografia contemporanea, edited by Claudio Pastrone, Fiaf, Turin, 2011 L’anima un paesaggio interiore, text by Giorgio Faletti e Liborio Termine, 24 Ore Cultura, Gruppo 24 Ore, Milan, 2011 Skyline, texts by Claude Nori and Francesco Zanot, Contrasto due, Rome, 2013 Franco Fontana. A life of photos, Italian and English editions, Postcart, Rome, 2013 Bellezze Disarmoniche, Artestampa, 2014 Franco Fontana - FULL COLOR, Ediz. Marsilio, Venice, 2014 Vita Nova, Ediz. Sabrina Raffaghello, 2014 Vista d'Autore, Canon-EXPO, 2015 Terra Alma et Amara, 100 numbered copies signed with a poem by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, 2015 La Fotografia Creativa, Mondadori, Milan Italia a Scatti Il Racconto di Grandi Fotografi, Electa, Milan