VINTAGE: ITALY 1964 @ Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò

"Twenty years after I left Rome, I learned of my Italian heritage. After much research in the NY Public Library, I returned to the Apulia region of Southeast Italy and through the matching of old family photographs, found my biological family in the small town of San Nicandro Garganico. From then on we have been deeply close. To have found each other has been a gift; the photographs from 1964 a visual testimony to the heritage that lives within me."
- Hope Wurmfeld 

The black and white photographs featured in this exhibition were first shown in the Graphics Department of the Princeton University Library and some were bought by the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. 

The portraits and landscapes of Italian life during 1964, primarily of Rome but also of the South and Sicily, give us a glimpse into the heart of a country at the cusp of profound industrial and political change.

With two m-3 Leicas, several lenses and a light meter, Wurmfeld spent 1964 living in Trastevere exploring the city and the surrounding countryside. A strong graphic sense and an eye for the revealing detail are distinguishing characteristics of this body of work.

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Hope Herman Wurmfeld graduated from Cornell University and received an MA degree in Art History from Columbia University. She taught photography at Hunter College from 1978 until 2001.

Wurmfeld has had solo exhibitions of her photographs in New York at the Goethe Institute, the Overseas Press Club, Marymount Manhattan College, the LeDel Gallery, Barnard College, Books & Co., the Union Carbide Gallery, and the Graphics Gallery of the Firestone Library at Princeton University. Her "Dream Garage" series was shown at the Fire House Gallery in Burlington, VT and at the Shenker Institute in Rome, Italy. In addition, her work has been included in group shows throughout the United States and Europe. 

Her work is included in numerous private and public collections, notably the Museum of Modern Art, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the New York Public Library, Williams College, the Archives of the National Museum of American History, and the University of Indiana. Written publications include "Baby Blues", published by Viking, and "Trucker" and "Boatbuilder" , both published by MacMillan. She has also contributed her photographs to numerous books, publications and catalogs. Wurmfeld has photographed theater at LaMama and Lincoln Center; her work on The Open Theater was published as part of the Young Directors Series of Rutgers University Press. 

Movie stills credits include "Kissing Jessica Stein", "True to the Game" and "See Jane Run". Wurmfeld was a Visting Artist at the American Academy in Rome in 1990. She received a Catalogue Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts for "Dream Garage", and a Completion Grant from the New York Arts Council for her exhibition entitled "Mothers and Daughters". 

Hope Herman Wurmfeld lives and works in Manhattan.

Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo'
On view through October 13
Mon-Fri 10-5