Casa Bella: Homes For Living And Dreaming

How many ways are there to live? Clearly no one has ever counted them; many are tied to cultural or religious traditions, popular consensus or aesthetic conventions. Be that as it may, it is evident that Massimo Listri has documented a significant proportion of these modus vivendi both theoretical and actual. Throughout his long career as a photographer, Listri has been a welcome guest in thousands of homes. With his photographs he has tried to render the subtle nuances and sense of life that pervades each one of them: the breath, the tastes, and the passions of those who live there. He has captured a living image constructed of light and shadow with all-encompassing views and evocative details; photographs that combine a conceptual classicism with a modern purism and serve as a touchstone to kindle the sensation of ‘home’ through a trompe-l’oeil, a picture window or an arrangement of paintings. Varying in style from classic to contemporary, with locations from the Mediterranean to the Alps, from urban settings to rural and indigenous areas, from east to west, the fifty-five houses found here are amongst the most evocative in the world. It is not without reason that this book is entitled ‘Casa Bella’ – these living spaces are seen from within, mediated by the vision of the proprietor, interior designer, or architect who conceived them. Taken together these images describe an infinite house, ever in progress, and in their own way recount a history of Man and his notion of ‘the beautiful’.