Alessandro Calvi’s Italian landscape series (see lot 33)came from his intrigue at the “empty and lonely countryside” of central and southern Italy. After the Second World War, the region experienced a mass exodus as farmers and labourers emigrated abroad or to the North in search of work.

Today, Alessandro recognises and respects the strong history of the sun-parched landscape “as an ancient landscape which has crossed centuries of relationship with man’s work”. He describes it as “a landscape without age, naked, made of brown and blue tones of earth, sky and grain, almost abstract like a photo by Franco Fontana or Luigi Ghirri” and touched by a light that is reminiscent of a painting by Edward Hopper.

This work has come to The Auction Collective through one of its brilliant partners, Open Doors – an online platform for some of the best photographers and storytellers around.