Winter Stories, the latest series of photographs.
Winter Stories, the title of Ventura's latest series of photographs (2007), refers, literally, to the season depicted, but also, more figuratively, to the final season of one's life. Ventura conceived of the photographs as representing the recollections of an old man as he looks back during his final moments. Regardless of whether the viewer knows that, the images, with their sweetly mournful quality, are surprisingly moving, given that their subjects are figurines in artist-made dioramas. Ventura, who honed his ability to create fictional worlds during a career as a fashion photographer, has here conjoined scenes of a small Italian town where a carnival has stopped. (Jean Dykstra)