www.stephanbrigidi.com
Fulbright-Hays Italy 1977

Purchase instructions: email info@fulbright.org with artist name & details of art piece

I have prepared a number of statements about my work over the years, and have often focused upon a particular theme or specific interest. Now at this later career stage as I approach such a summary statement, it causes me to pause and assess the greater picture of the work itself. Whether I have made photographs, drawings, or other media, my curiosities have simply been to examine humanity and my own place and role within humanity.

I have always come from a cultural perspective. This has certainly begun with my own background and heritage, and has brought me to spend vast amounts of time in Italy toward a greater understanding of my own origins. I would however, be quite short sighted as a social observer and participant, if I were to limit myself to my own western Caucasian background. Through my travels I have come to observe the greater diversity of people and my interests are in addressing our linkage in humanity. I am also acutely aware of the white privilege that I come from and seek to reconcile this inheritance as I interact with others with less opportunities. By my image-making, I want to explore our common bonds, and express my strong beliefs in the importance of this.

My projects over the last several decades well substantiate my assertions about our universal linkage. While I delight in printmaking and the practice of exhibitions, my pursuit is more in the making of books. Publishing my pictures and words are far more reaching to wider audiences and this format lends itself better to collaborations. Working with others on my projects has the outcomes of a greater learning experience, and the results are far more personally rewarding.

Photography is the great universal language. What better means to celebrate our common humanity than to speak with the voice of photography.

Stephan Brigidi was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1951, receiving his MFA- RI School of Design in 1976, Brigidi was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Italy from 1977-78, and a Photographer’s Fellowship from the National Endow­ment for the Arts 1978. He has been an invited artist to MacDowell, Yaddo, and MASS/MoCA. Publications include: Angels of Pompeii 1991, Remarkable People 1996, Afraid of the Dark: A Venetian Story 2015, The Fire of Rome 2016, Portrait 2017, and ROME 1970s in 2019. Brigidi has taught photography, painting, and aesthetics since 1979 at such places as the Universities of Hawaii & Connecticut, Roger Williams University, and Rhode Island School of Design. Brigidi’s work has been acquired by more than thirty museums in the US and Europe.