Page 58 - Protagonist 108

AS TIMEPROTAGONIST / CREATIVE MAN
GOES BY...
Every time we listen to a sound we recognize, our mind
takes us to the image that music evokes in us.
It’s an intimate connection. This is why I developed
this project. The more intense is the image
that conveys the sound, the stronger the sound gets
BY PIER PAOLO PITACCO
T here are such things that have followed
you for a lifetime and it seems impossible
when, suddenly, they disappear as if nobody
cares. Certainly some of them vanish since they you can listen to music with earphones from your smartphone
have no more reason to be; they are simply
obsolete, when generation changes and new technologies get
the better of them. When in November 2011, in New York,
I was told that there were no more LP stores, apart from a
couple or three stores of used LPs and CDs, I felt a little lost. ones that catch my eye. I take them as object which I want to
The idea that music fruition had become a simple exclusive
for download, with a consequence of “liquid music” with no
physical nor visual support, made me feel sick. This feeling
was not supported by the just fact that the world changes and,
as a consequence, technologies, lifestyle and consumption
change with it; the deep reason in it was the complete loss
of music quality as much as its physical beauty represented
in those magnificent LP covers and, lately, in CD miniatures.
Nowadays music, instead of being a qualitative patrimony
58 PROTAGONIST / N. 108
Pier Paolo Pitacco lives and works in Paris and
Milan, where he has been at the centre of the
biggest publishing events connected with the
success of Italian Style. He worked for more
than 20 Italian and international publishing
houses and for more than 40 international
brands connected to design and high fashion,
acting as their interface with advertising,
fashion, packaging and corporate design. In
2000 he published the volume Stile Italiano:
Twenty years’ graphic design in Italian Fashion
(Lupetti Editore) in two editions, Italian and
English, tracing his career from its origins. Lover
or art, photography and music, in 2006 he
started developing artistic and design projects
connected to his sensibility for graphics, colour
and contemporaneity. At present, in addition
to the professional activity at his Studio, he is
former Art Director of Rolling Stone Italy. He
also follows the art direction of Protagonist.
for everyone, turns into a qualitative heritage for collectors
only. For the remaining ones, there goes the download! Say
goodbye to the analogical LP’s deep and mellow sound, now
(as easy as wired wireless). Once I came back to Europe,
where you can still find LP stores, I started taking pictures
of that beauty that maybe is going to disappear here too. I
choose those covers that come to memory, but also those
extract beauty from, a beauty that goes beyond the way they
appear; I look for a cut, a particular, a light refraction that can
completely change the cover itself, turning it into something
new, as from a new point of view. Since I take pictures inside
LP stores, the main attitude is the one of a “stolen picture”, as
if I were a paparazzo of LP covers: seize the moment and then
move to another subjetc. Most of the pictures in this book
have been taken between February 2012 and March 2014 in
Paris, Milan, London, Zurich and a few market places.