Ramak Fazel’s Analog Blast @ Salone Milan 2013

April 29, 2013
Design Feature / Design News / Photography / Salone Milan 2013
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Milanese photographer Delfino Sisto Legnani curated the ANALOG BLAST : Design through the lens by Ramak Fazel exhibition, organised by Domus in the prized location of Casa degli Atellani a 15th Century palace, which is next to Milan’s Santa Marie delle Grazie, where Leonardo and his collaborators stayed while painting the Last Supper.

Domus created an exhibition that sought to reflect on the richness — of innovation, style, elegance and functionality — that has animated the design field in the last twenty years.

“Analog Blast” is an explosion of the analog world: the photograph’s from Ramak Fazel‘s archive present fragments of life

Photographer Delfino Sisto Legnani paid homage to his own photography master and his incredible archives, presented for the first time into a large exhibition – presented as a homage to Italian and international design of the past twenty years.

Delfino’s curating developed a journey of discovery which pieced stories of Ramak together, creating suggestions and portraying a world made of genius, humanity, passion and rigour.

Sottsass, Toyo Ito, Magistretti, Holl, Zanuso, Starck, Nouvel, Fuksas, Irvine, to name but a few, are among more than two hundred luminaries captured by the lens of Ramak Fazel who more than any other person in recent times, has witnessed the life and times of the great design protagonists, capturing them in posed or spontaneous ways.

Fazel portrayed the Masters in their daily routine or in their studios, surrounded by collaborators or those who are dearest to them; as well as design objects, prototypes, the interiors of production and manufacturing complexes and the workers who bring these objects to life.

Rodolfo Dordoni by Ramak Fazel

Ramak Fazel with his Milan Unit archive

The exhibition presented an exceptional excursion into the history of modern design of the last 20 years through the lens of Ramak Fazel, photographer and long-time collaborator of Domus magazine.

More than two hundred of Fazels photos were presented in a very clever, natural and free installation inside several rooms of Casa degli Atellani.

Old film rolls, lenses, and Polaroid photos join the photographer’s own objects to create a highly familiar atmosphere; they let the viewer go behind-the-scenes of his unusual iconographic universe, which includes more than 200 designers of international renown.

Fazel’s “analogue blast” materialised on the walls of the ground floor, while the upper floor held an installation of his famous “Milan Unit” archives.

The Milan Unit Archives

In 2009, after fifteen years of migrant living in Milan, Fazel abandoned most of his new life there, leaving only the Milan Unit, including many memories and celluloid adventures sealed behind thick glass in what was previously known as the “blue kitchen”.

The Milan Unit was sealed in 2009,when Fazel returned to graduate school to earn his MFA, at the California Institute of the Arts.

Joseph Grima, editor of Domus Magazine encouraged Ramak to re-open his archive and togther with Delfino to review /organise /arrange / curate its presentation within the Casa degli Atellani for a special Domus Salone exposition

Loosely organized alphabetically, with a focus on design and portraits of designers, Milan Unit is an exciting testament to Fazel’s photography.

enzo mari

On Tuesday, April 9, Domus opened the “Analog Blast. Design through the lens of Ramak Fazel” exhibition at the Casa degli Atellani as part of Fuorisalone 2013.

Guests, including the many personalities hung on the walls, were asked to reflect on the extraordinary creative force that has driven the world of international design since the 1970s in an uncommonly domestic and informal ambience,

joseph grima (l) with Ramak Fazel (r)

“Analog Blast” celebrated the extraordinary creative power that has animated the design world from the seventies onwards. To do this it was fundamental to look into Ramak Fazel’s incredible archive — for many years, one of Domus’ closest collaborators — where we found an incredibly rich collection of portraits and images, all in film. It truly resembled an analog explosion, which had never been collected and articulated in an exhibition.” ……. Joseph Grima

Gallery photos by Delfino Sisto Legnani

About Ramak Fazel

Born in Iran, in 1965

Raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana,USA when he was 2 months old

He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Mechanical engineering

He later moved to New York to study graphic design and photography, assisting with notable photographers such as Mark Seliger and Bruce Davidson.

From 1994 until 2009 he lived and worked in Milan, Italy.

He is a frequent collaborator with European and Japanese publications and cultural institutions; since 1996 has been contract contributor to Domus Magazine.

His collaboration with industry has included numerous European firms such as Flos, Vitra and Desalto.

Over the course of the last years he has been invited to lecture and conduct workshops at several academic institutions and universities such as SUPSI (Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, CH) and the Design Academy in Eindhoven (NE).

His area of interest and personal projects in Iran, Italy and the U.S.A. concentrate on the concept of cultural identity, and how it relates to our notion of “place” and origin.

He mainly expresses his artistic vision through the portrait and staging of the human condition, experimenting with the contextualization of the subject in their natural environment.

In early 2008, beginning in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fazel’s journey tours the United States with the purpose of photographically documenting the capitol building of each state and the everyday lives of the people in and around it.

In a rented van, used both as a traveling home and studio, Fazel visited 49 of the state capitals over a three-month period (the self-funded budget for the trip didn’t stretch far enough to include Alaska).

Equipped with a stamp collection from his childhood, at each stop Fazel prepared a handmade postcard, which he then mailed to himself at the general post office of his next destination, thus putting the dated postage collection to use to become part of a future set of postcards.

Along with photographs of the journey, the project provides a narrative of the search of the increasingly complicated idea of American identity.

Currently he lives in Los Angeles where he is an MFA candidate at California Institute of the Arts.

About Delfino Sisto Legnani

Freelance Photographer – Architect

Graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, has worked with several photographers and Architecture – Design studios such as Ramak Fazel, Onesite studio, Giancarlo Floridi, CLS architetti, PN Studio.

Has partecipated to several photography workshops with Nikos Economopoulos and with David Alan Harvey.

Now developing various photographic research about Territory, Architecture and Society.

Working for International and National .

Currently works as a freelance photographer for reportage, architecture, documentary, design.

At present lives and works in Milano.