"So Close to Heaven is Tibet" is an exhibition by Jacques Borgetto curated by Laura Serani, with a book Filigranes Editions, opening Wednesday, April 5 (6-9 p.m.), running from April 6 to June 3 (Wednesday-Friday 3:30-7:30 p.m., Saturday 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) at '10b Photography' at 10b Via S. Lorenzo da Brindisi in Rome.

"Of Tibet, Jacques Borgetto recounts the serenity, the everyday and the spiritual, the persistent traditions and the approaching modernity. The immensity of the sky recalls the question of denied territory. Dense and contrasting, black and white alternates with color for a unique journey into this land so close to heaven," the presentation reads.

"Travel is often at the origin of the photographic work of Jacques Borgetto, a photographer and 'long-distance' traveler whose way of proceeding is similar to that of explorers. Initially driven by a desire to retrace the itinerary of his Italian great-uncles who emigrated to Latin America, Borgetto has, then, never stopped setting out to discover regions whose evolution he has sought, over the years, to document. In Argentina, Chile, Japan, Tibet, Korea, from Latin America to Asia, to Africa, his inner journey is transformed and focused on others, whose culture he seeks to understand and narrate," Serani writes.

"Tibet has always been a great mystery to me and continues to exert a deep attraction. Readings by Alexandra David-Néel, and many others, have given me a glimpse of the richness and uniqueness of this civilization. My travels have given me the opportunity to experience an intense spiritual adventure and to share in the life of an exceptional and fascinating people whose identity is threatened today," Borgetto stresses, among other things.

Jacques Borgetto, whose family hails from a small village in Piedmont, was born in Paris. From a very young age, he became passionate about photography, which would accompany him on his every journey. This 'Baudelaire of the image,' as journalist Alain Mingam calls him, traverses the world and his era, from Europe to South America, from Africa to Asia, to meet his peers. Since 1975, his work has been regularly exhibited in France and abroad.

In 2012 he was the winner of the Vienna International Photo Awards (VIPA) and has been awarded several artist residencies throughout his career. His works are in the permanent collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Tessé Museum in Le Mans, the Halsnoy Island Museum in Norway, the Museum of Photography in Nice, etc., and in numerous private collections. The specialized press has dedicated several publications to him, the last of which on the occasion of Paris Photos 2023 with the magazine de l'air " Jacques Borgetto, Viaggiatore Celeste ". He is also the author of six books on photography: L'homme et l'olivier (L'homme et l'olivier, Editions du Nol, 1984), Nous avons fait un très beau voyage (We had a beautiful trip, Editions Filigranes, 2010), L'autre versant du monde (The Other Side of the World, Editions Filigranes, 2010), Terres foulées (Trampled Earth, Editions Filigranes, 2011), Buenos Aires (Editions be-pôles, 2013) and Evanescence (Editions Filigranes, 2016). Jacques Borgetto lives and works in Paris.