Over the past few years the Incontri Internazionali d’Arte association has been the subject of much attention, with various studies, exhibitions and publications all devoted to its activity. Archival research always plays a key role in work on the group, and one name stands out in the available material: Massimo Piersanti, author of the most evocative photographs of the Roman association’s life since its establishment by Graziella Lonardi Buontempo. His images document the organization’s output from 1970 until Buontempo’s death in 2010. The Incontri space was a fruitful context for not only the artists, curators and critics who experienced it, but also for Piersanti who, as a privileged observer of the changes in contemporary art, was well placed to experiment with and develop his skills as a photographer.
The art scene of the 1960s and 1970s encapsulates the political and social ferment of those decades, its protagonists searching for and elaborating on new expressive idioms capable of challenging established modes and contexts. This experimentation found form in the creation of often ephemeral works of art, the staging of performative actions, the increasing use of alternative spaces for the organization of exhibitions and events, the production of documentation material and the direct involvement of the public in the enjoyment of the works. The photographers who were active during the period are not excluded from this process of experimentation; on the contrary, they become an important reference for artists and practitioners, to whom they delegate the creation of images capable of recording the changes taking place. Photography thus provides art with a lasting image of itself.

Massimo Piersanti established himself as a professional photographer in Rome in the late 1960s, after a long period spent in Naples and abroad. He was self-taught, and became part of the Roman art scene as a result of his natural curiosity, which allowed him to take his first steps in the world of cinema and theatre. From there he started collaborating with important advertising agencies who commissioned him for prestigious photographic campaigns such as those for Alitalia and Valtur. His agency work allowed him not only to travel extensively during those years, but also to have the necessary resources to use avant-garde equipment, both in the studio and outdoors. Above all, though, it guaranteed him the freedom to choose the subjects he wanted to devote his free time to.
So it was that in 1970 he began collaborating with Graziella Lonardi Buontempo and Achille Bonito Oliva. After being introduced to him by the art critic Bruno Corà at the exhibition Vitalità del negativo nell’arte italiana 1960/1970 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, they gave him the task of documenting the exhibition, which Ugo Mulas had already started photographing. This was his first time approaching artworks as a photographer, but also his first involvement with the contemporary art world. Thanks to this experience he decided to continue following the Incontri’s program. Then in 1971, following the Seventh Paris Biennale, he became their official photographer. From this moment on, his gaze was entrusted with the tasks of representing the association’s identity, portraying the atmospheres it created, and conveying the creative ferment it produced.