TOP 30th Anniversary
Luigi Ghirri Infinite Landscapes

Jul. 3—Sep. 28, 2025

• Jul. 3—Sep. 28, 2025
• Closed Mondays (except when Monday falls on a holiday, in which case the museum is open and closed the following day)
• Admission：Adults ￥800(640)／College Students ￥640(510)／High School Students, Over 65 ￥400(320) *Prices in parenthesis apply to groups of 20 or more. (Reservation is required.) *Free for junior high school students or younger and holders of Japan’s disability identification cards (shogaisha techo) together with two caregiver. *Those over 65 years old receive free admission on the third Wednesday of every month by presenting proof of age at the ticket counter.

The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992) in celebration of the museum’s 30th anniversary.
After starting his career as a surveyor, Ghirri began working seriously with photography in the 1970s, inspired by his encounters with conceptual artists.
For Ghirri, photography was not a means of simply reproducing the real world, but a form of expression with which he constructed landscapes from framed visual fragments. Through this practice, he sought to reveal the relationship between reality and image within fleeting scenes, deepening his reflections on presence and absence, and on the external world and the inner self.
This exhibition features Ghirri’s landscapes composed of diverse visual fragments, ranging from scenes of Italy and travel destinations to artists’ studios, the interior of his home, artworks, signs and posters, and reflections in windows and mirrors. These images were captured from the 1970s through the end of his life. It also includes works by and archival materials relating to his wife Paola Borgonzoni(1954–2011), a graphic designer who was a crucial presence in his career. Together, these works and materials trace Ghirri’s multifaceted investigation of the medium of photography over a span of approximately two decades.
We hope this exhibition offers an opportunity to engage with Ghirri’s enduring exploration of infinite landscapes, and his unique perspectives on the world.

Artist Profile
Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992)
Luigi Ghirri was born in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy. From the 1970s onward, he devoted himself to photography. With extraordinary aesthetic sensitivity to color, space, and light, as well as a talent for capturing mundane scenes with a humorous edge, he explored 2 experimental modes of expression, working primarily in color photography. In addition to his artistic practice, he was among the founders of the photography-focused publishing house Punto e Virgola and taught photographic theory at the Università del Progetto, among other wide-ranging activities.


Luigi Ghirri, Capri, 1981, from the series ‘Italian Landscape’, 1981 ©Heirs of Luigi Ghirri


Luigi Ghirri, Salzburg, 1977, from the series of ‘F11, 1/125, natural light’, 1977 ©Heirs of Luigi Ghirri


Luigi Ghirri, Reggio Emilia, 1985, from the series of ‘F11, 1/125, natural light’, 1985 ©Heirs of Luigi Ghirri


Luigi Ghirri, Modena, 1970, from the series of ‘Photographs from the early period’, 1970 ©Heirs of Luigi Ghirri


Luigi Ghirri, Bologna 1989-90, from the series of ‘Studio Giorgio Morandi’, 1989-90
Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum ©Heirs of Luigi Ghirri

I didn't want to create PHOTOGRAPHS, but MAPS, PLANS that at the same time were meant to be photographs.
—— Luigi Ghirri

Lining them up, one after another, these places form a sort of sequence, made up of stones, churches, gestures, lights, fogs, frost-covered branches, blue seas – and thus they become our impossible landscape, without scale, without a geographic order to orient us, a tangle of monuments, lights, thoughts, objects, moments... as if they were the points of an imaginary compass that indicate a possible direction.
—— Luigi Ghirri

*The schedule is subject to change. Any further changes will be announced.

Organized by Tokyo Photographic Art Museum operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture
With Assistance of the Embassy of Italy in Japan
Supported by Pola Art Foundation 
Sponsored by the Corporate Membership of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum