DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY:
50 years of photographic works by Vincenzo Pietropaolo

Presented with James Rottman Fine Art and as part of CONTACT Photography Festival

The exhibition consists of works spanning fifty years from the artist’s work, including many inspired by his upcoming book, Toronto as Community. This body of work chronicles the daily lives of ordinary residents of the city, the evolution of labour and social issues, working class culture and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Concurrently, additional photographs will also be displayed at the Italian Cultural Institute on Huron Street. 

Vincenzo Pietropaolo is a social documentary photographer who has travelled extensively to document various cultures, cities, people and their way of life. His passion for social justice and human rights is a common thread in his work, ranging from Mexico, Cuba, Italian immigration to Canada and seasonal migrant farm workers to Canada. The preservation of the natural environment is another theme seen in his series on trees in both Italy and Canada. Vincenzo Pietropaolo was born in 1951, in Maierato, Italy, and immigrated as a young boy with his family to Toronto, Canada. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ryerson University, Toronto.

He has distinguished himself as a photographic bookmaker, mixing photographs with his own original writing. His works and documentary photographs have been the subject of over 12 books and featured in art magazines like Border Crossings, as well as receiving critical acclaim in periodicals like The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Canadian Geographic has called him “one of Canada’s pre-eminent documentary photographers.” Recognizing his empathetic approach and social commitment, Geist Magazine wrote that his work “is a brilliant example of photography at its most ‘communicative’: for Pietropaolo, the camera is a tool for touching the world.” In 1999 he published a book Celebration of Resistance: Ontario’s Days of Action. His latest book is Toronto as Community: Fifty Years of Photographs.

Established in 1995, James Rottman Fine Art is specializes in the representation and sale of important 20th Century Canadian historical, post-war, and contemporary artworks.

Established in 1997, CONTACT is a not-for-profit organization celebrating the art and profession of photography. In both its annual Festival and in its year-round programming, CONTACT recognizes the significance of photography within all aspects of contemporary life, and the creative possibilities it envisions for the past, present, and future.

Photograph by ©Vincenzo Pietropaolo