Joan's Shows in Italy

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(Read in Italian a review of Joan's latest show in Lerici -- "Le Mie Foto Favorite.")

First Locandina per Le Due Ci: “Parma e New York: Two Cities.” (View larger image)

Translation into English of Claudio del Monte’s description of Joan Massel Soncini on the occasion of “Fra Parchi e Citta: I Cento Laghi, le Cinque Terre e Central Park, New York e Parma, ” a show at the Palazzo Giordani, sponsored by the Provincial Government of Parma, Italy. 2006.

Joan Massel Soncini, psychotherapist and professor at the New York University, born in Washington DC, lives and works principally in New York.

She has always cultivated a strong passion for photography, developing technical and artistic knowledge from classical to digital photography. The latter has given her the fascinating possibility to play with photography through the computer, combining in this way art and new technology, in a dreamlike evolution of the image.

Second Show: Arte a Palazzo Giordani (View larger image)

Her favorite subjects are the places she knows intimately, where she lives during different times of the year: Cinque Terre, Parma, New York, and Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.

In November 2005, she had her first Italian photography show in Parma, the birthplace of her husband, Mario Soncini (Italianissimo, but also a naturalized citizen of the USA) at the Galleria del Teatro, entitled: “Parma e New York: Two Cities.” In addition, she has had shows in New York and Virgin Gorda.

Third Locandina per Mostra (View larger image)

I don’t know if looking at these images you will experience, as I do, finding yourself in front of easily remembered landscapes and pictures, but you will realize that they are different, more beautiful, “softer”, warmer and more welcoming than they have previously seemed to you!

I’ve asked myself, "Why," and the answer became immediately clear to me: those of Joan Soncini are not photos, well to say of the surface, which represent what we usually casually see, but rather they’re pictures which delve inside their subjects, almost going to look for their soul, their identity, their sense of belonging to the world to make it more beautiful and welcoming.

These photos, which seem taken not with a simple click of the lens, but directly from Joan’s own eyes, are among the most happy and serene that I have ever seen. Thus, I counsel you to look at them seeking better understanding of that which makes them so unique, alive, beautiful, more so than what we usually observe.

Fourth show: Mostra a Lerici (View larger image)

“Technique, yes, but with sentiment,” said an old slogan of Franco Maria Ricci. Do you remember it?

In the images of Joan, in fact, there really is so much technical competence, but not at the expense of her spontaneous capacity to find always the best way of framing the picture.

Then, there is her attention to color, or indeed colors, which transforms a “traditional” image into an almost dreamlike place.

Fifth show: Portovenere, Castello Doria Sala (View larger image)

This is why these photos do not “tell” about a trip, they do not “document” it, rather they evoke an experience in which the beauty of the subjects and her most personal mode of interpreting them present more emotions to the heart than images to the eyes.

Parma, New York, Central Park and the Parks of Cinque Terre and Cento Laghi are splendid on their own, but today they are really joyfully colored for a party. Thus, thank you Joan!

©2007 R. Leung