Chess Portraits
A fine art series by Francesco Ridolfi
"Often, inside each one of us, opposing drives make themselves felt and alternate within as light illuminates and shadow darkens our minds. Black and White. Good plays Evil. Chess figures offer an opportunity to explore this dualism. They provide a set of archetypes that convey different aspects of human nature. They throw us into relief; they highlight us in shadow and light. Blacks and Whites."
I have always been fascinated with chess. When I was a child, my father
taught me the rules of the game and we were used to play together. That
said, I’m not certainly an expert on it, but still today I love to
play chess with friends, especially during summer days. So, probably this
is the original roots of the whole idea.
Talking on the photographic side of the project, the idea to humanize the
different pieces of the chess board came to me probably a couple of years
ago, and it took a while to grow up and shape in my mind.
To me, the most interesting part of the whole project was the possibility
to portray the same character both in black and white – to highlight
different and sometimes opposite parts of the human nature that often coexist
in each of us. As a portrait photographer I’ve always been interested
in these different feelings that could emerge in the subjects in front of
my lens.
The fact that the chess game has a set of six different archetypes (the
king, queen, bishop, rook, knight and pawn) to work with, gives me the possibility
to explore different part of human nature. And, actually, it was a great
source of inspiration to play with period dresses and costumes. I did a
long research to find the right costume style for each character, than an
extensive search for the perfect fabrics, travelling along the entire region.
The fact that each costume was made both in black and white complicated
the whole process a bit, but in the end the result repaid me for all the
efforts I had undertaken!
Chess Portraits - The making of
from Francesco Ridolfi on
Vimeo.
I had the luck to work with a really great crew of people, from my assistant
Gemma Benassi, who helped me along the entire project, to the clothes designer
Elena Rapa, who has done a wonderful job with sketches, putting on paper
my ideas, to the Scissor Lab guys and Anna Rizzoli who has been in charge
for the production of the twelve different dresses. A special thanks also
goes to Andrea Aiudi, a great artist who creates the personalized objects
for each character (crowns, sceptres, bishop’s crooks, medallions..).
Probably the longest part of the entire project was the talent casting.
It was done mostly online, but I also met some people to better understand
if they really fit for the role. It took me about three months in total,
but I feel I really got what I was looking for. The models came from all
over Italy, with the special participation of the “knight”,
who is based in New York City, but often comes in Milan for modelling.
From the beginning to the end, the entire project requires nine months
of work but, again, I’m really happy with the final result:











Francesco Ridolfi
Francesco Ridolfi is an Italian portrait photographer who normally shoots
for advertising and editorial projects. Born and raised in Bologna, Italy,
he now splits his time between Brussels, Milan and Bologna working for different
clients and assignments in the editorial and commercial field. His current work can be seen at his website, and is called chess portraits.

The artist: Francesco Ridolfi