The catalogue of the first show held by the Fondazione Rolla, which opened in June 2010 and was devoted to the Czechoslovak photographer Josef Sudek (1896-1976). Sudek is an enigmatic and captivating author, drawn to mysterious visions charged with aura, to details that make every frame a one-off, and to a craft often only apparently imperfect, above all at the printing stage. He loved indefinite greys, which his contemporaries frequently mistook for a lack of style, and which he emphasised most of all in his choice of contact prints. Although he lost his right arm in the First World War, photography became the centre of his life. He knew how to wait, for hours and sometimes for whole days, until the moment was right; in his case it is no exaggeration to say that he writes with light, the sought-after light that marks each of his frames. The show gathered 25 vintage prints, from wide landscape views to the outlook from his studio window, the studio itself, wild nature and gardens seen as the backdrops of a performance, perfectly composed even where they look accidental. Two portfolios introduce them: the set of thirteen images issued in his name in 1976, the year of his death, and the eighteen pictures of Profily/1, brought out by the Czech magazine Panorama in 1980, to which Sudek had contributed since 1931.