From his images of the Chateau of Versailles under restoration to the faded grandeur of Havana, to scenes of devastation from Chernobyl after the nuclear explosion and a New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Robert Polidori is drawn to detritus, shattered worlds and elegant ruin. Often considered an architectural photographer, Polidori captures more than buildings: his highly detailed views of interiors evoke both the intimate and the mysterious, wherein the humanity of these photos is felt in its very absence, in the traces left behind in vacant spaces once inhabited. Chronophagia is an affordable sampling of Polidori's many famous projects. This handsome clothbound volume contains the artist's own selection of more than 100 photographs, from the classics to several rarely seen images. The result is a beautifully edited compendium of Polidori's 28-year career and a stunning visual exploration of the liminal space between past and present, of worlds on the brink of disappearance.
Robert Polidori was born in Montreal in 1951 and lives in Los Angeles. His work has been the subject of exhibitions in New York, London, Brazil and Montreal, among others. He received the World Press Photo Award in 1997, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography in 1999 and 2000, and Communication Arts awards in 2007 and 2008. In 2006 Polidori's series of photographs of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.