Ferdinando Scianna at the Venice Ghetto - Until November 22, 2026

On May 31, 2026, Ikona Gallery inaugurates the exhibition Ferdinando Scianna at the Venice Ghetto.

A Visitor's Gaze

The first time was in late May 2007, when I crossed the glass door of Ikona Photo Gallery, a threshold that invites the gaze to enter.

There was an exhibition on display in the gallery, Watermark by Robert Morgan: an accrochage whose title took after the original name of Joseph Brodsky's essay – Fondamenta degli Incurabili – which features a dedication written to Morgan at the opening of the book.

Of that first time I remember, among numerous details, the silence inside the space and the reflection of the light on the floor. A light coming from the luminous staircase created by Federica Marangoni, above which stands the IKONA VENEZIA sign in turquoise glass. And sitting at the desk was Živa Kraus, an incisive and lateral presence. Thus began my constant visits to a room located at the center of a square that is an "island within the island", the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo.

Nineteen years later, I still return to cross that glass door which leads to a temporary encounter with the grammar of a photographer's gaze.

The work of Ferdinando Scianna will be exhibited on the walls of Ikona Gallery.

Starting next May 31, 2026, it will be possible to rediscover the images collected by the Sicilian photographer for a project created in 2016, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the Ghetto: photographs that were then presented to the public with the exhibition "Ferdinando Scianna: The Venice Ghetto 500 Years Later" at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Giudecca.

This testimony portrays a memory and a square that still carry a strong specificity within themselves.

Lingering in front of these shots allows the visitor to walk along the masegni (stone pavers) of the square, to cross one of the three bridges that grant access to it, and to lift their gaze up to the top of the buildings, which are dense and taller than normal here. And, even more so, it means questioning Photography itself and the pacing that allows the author to inhabit moments until rendering them visible.

This project by Scianna was not merely a response to a reportage commission by Fondazione Venezia, but an act of knowledge: a journey inward to the point of recognizing, recording, and pronouncing oneself on a border that is far more than just an exclusive wing of a city.

These photographs also contain much of something that lies in the background like a watermark. Within their black and white, there is dedication, the attentiveness of observation, and a leaning forward to the point of understanding.

Inscribed within them is a time of footsteps and words, of directions and spots visited together, of discussions and exchanges between people who shared a common action in a square.

I am referring to Ferdinando Scianna and Živa Kraus who, as friends, walked through the Ghetto together during the days of shooting. The former as the author, the latter as the person who, since 2003, chose this place to carry out her curatorial gesture toward Photography.

This exhibition affirms a master's personal vision of the Venice Ghetto and highlights how much photographic language, apparently within everyone's reach today, is actually the result of a lifetime of dedication; of how necessary it is to immerse oneself in the exercise of the gaze and of mutual participation.

This is testified to me by Scianna's images and by the incisive and faithful presence of Živa Kraus.

AS

Venice, May 21, 2026

FERDINANDO SCIANNA

Ferdinando Scianna was born on July 4, 1943, in Bagheria, a farming village in Sicily. In 1961, he enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at the University of Palermo. At the age of seventeen, he began systematically photographing Sicilian religious festivals.

In 1963, a friend pointed out his first exhibition in Bagheria, featuring photos of the festivals, to Leonardo Sciascia, who appreciated it greatly. That same year, he met the writer in Racalmuto, sparking a decisive friendship that would last twenty-six years, until Sciascia's death.

In 1963, he exhibited an important body of images on the festivals at the Galleria Sormani in Milan.

Encouraged by Sciascia, in 1965 he published the volume Feste religiose in Sicilia (Religious Festivals in Sicily) with the publisher Leonardo da Vinci in Bari, featuring a memorable text by Sciascia himself. The book gained widespread acclaim and won the Nadar Prize. In 1966, he left the university and Sicily to move to Milan, where, thanks to Roberto Leydi, he was hired the following year as a photojournalist for the magazine L’Europeo, where he remained for seventeen years.

In 1974, director Tommaso Giglio sent him to Paris as a correspondent, where he would stay for ten years. There, he met his lifelong idol, Henri Cartier-Bresson; a deep friendship was born from this meeting.

It was thanks to Cartier-Bresson's invitation that in 1982, when he decided to leave the magazine, he submitted his candidacy to the Magnum Photos agency, where he was welcomed as the first Italian photographer.

He returned to Milan and began a new professional chapter as an independent photographer.

In 1987, he produced an important reportage on a miners' village in the Bolivian Andes, which would lead to the book Kami. Almost simultaneously, fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana invited him to shoot the photos for one of their very first fashion catalogues. The catalogue achieved worldwide success, launching him into the international world of fashion photography, which he practiced for eight years for the sector's most prestigious magazines and brands, until he decided to stop to dedicate himself to various reportages, exhibitions, and above all, personal books.

In 1989, he created Le forme del Caos (The Forms of Chaos), an anthological exhibition accompanied by a major catalogue; he would go on to do four more, culminating in the major solo exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan in 2023.

Over the course of his career, he has published more than one hundred photography volumes, entrusting the meaning of his work to them.

In 2025, Roberto Andò directed a documentary-portrait, Ferdinando Scianna, il fotografo dell'ombra (Ferdinando Scianna, the Photographer of the Shadow), which was selected by the Venice International Film Festival.

IKONA GALLERY

Founded on July 28, 1979, in Venice, near the San Moisè bridge, by artist and gallerist Živa Kraus. Since 1989, Ikona Venezia has also been an International School of Photography. It has carried out projects in various other prestigious locations throughout the city, until arriving, in 2003, at its current home in Campo del Ghetto Nuovo. Over time, its rooms have hosted the greatest figures in world photography, from Berenice Abbott to Gabriele Basilico, Antonio and Felice Beato, John Batho, Alberto Bevilacqua, Bruce Davidson, Adolphe de Meyer, Robert Doisneau, Giorgia Fiorio, Franco Fontana, Martine Franck, Chuck Freedman, Gisèle Freund, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Mario Giacomelli, Erich Hartmann, William Klein, Helen Levitt, Lisette Model, Paolo Monti, Barbara Morgan, Carlo Naya, Helmut Newton, Ferdinando Sciascia, and Rosalind Solomon. July 28, 2025, represents both a point of arrival and a confirmation and transformation for Ikona Gallery: its presence in the city continues to be a milestone for Venetian and international culture.  

Ferdinando SCIANNA at the VENICE GHETTO

May 31 - November 22, 2026

11:00 AM - 7:00 PM, closed on Saturdays

Opening: Sunday, May 31, 2026, at 11:00 AM

Ikona Gallery, Campo del Ghetto Nuovo, Venice