A Matter of Light

Documents the creation of a unique collection of contemporary photography for the Vatican Museums.

A Matter of Light brings together the eyes of nine masters of international photography called to interpret the prestigious and precious uniqueness of the Vatican Museums. It derives from the intention to constitute the first photographic collection within the Contemporary Art Collection of the Vatican Museums. It is the first time that a Museum has commissioned a production of this type, aimed at constituting a new photographic collection inseparably linked to the museum itself, which becomes both its subject and its recipient.

The photographers chosen to work within the Vatican Museums are Bill Armstrong, Peter Bialobrzeski, Antonio Biasiucci, Alain Fleischer, Francesco Jodice, Mimmo Jodice, Rinko Kawauchi, Martin Parr and Massimo Siragusa. Each one of them has worked in distinct moments and on different aspects of this multiple museum, producing nine autonomous works that document and interpret the interior and architectural space of the halls, the flow of visitors and the memories that daily animate the people and spaces, the works on display and those conserved in the deposits, signs of wear and tear, and bodily traces.