Ad Agrigento fino al 25 Gennaio, presso il Museo Archeologico San Nicola, si può visitare la mostra fotografica "In fondo agli occhi- Ritratti siciliani" di Arturo Patten. Nato a Torence in California nel 1939, ha vissuto a lungo in Europa fino ad approdare ad Agrigento nella terra del Caos pirandelliano e considerarsi siciliano. Si è suicidato a pochi passi della Casa Natale di Luigi Pirandello nel 1999. Chiunque sia a conoscenza di informazioni su questo personaggio straordinario può inviare una email a mgallo@sicilytravel.net

Michele Gallo
http://www.valleyofthetemples.com/
http://www.sicilytravel.net/

Michele, I will not try to say this in Italian, but here is a (very) brief biography of Arturo Patten that I found on Amazon.com:

Arturo Patten was born in 1939 and grew up in Mexico, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. From the age of thirty he lived in Italy and France. His portraits have been published and exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. The Invisible Stranger is his fourth book of photographs. He died in March 1999.

And this is a link to a page that mentions six books that he published:

http://www.frontlist.com/booklist/75448

Here's the description of another book:

"THE INVISIBLE STRANGER: The Patten, Maine, Photographs by Arturo Patten, text by Russell Banks. Portrait photographer Arturo Patten and acclaimed writer Russell Banks visit the hardscrabble north country of Patten, Maine, to study the town's residents. The haunting portraits evoke characters who exist in Banks's fiction. Taken together the photographs and the commentary offer a dramatic and provocative combination of word and image. 73 pages. HarperCollins, 1999."

Looking more closely at the list of six books to which I provided a link, I'm not at all sure what Arturo Patten's contribution to them is; they are known primarily as literary works by Russell Banks.

Here's a description of an exhibition of portraits by Arturo Patten presented at IMEC in July 2005:

"Arturo Patten : portraits d'écrivains et d'artistes
Ardenne
du vendredi 8 juillet au dimanche 4 septembre -- L'exposition consacrée au photographe Arturo Patten, dont les archives sont conservées à l'IMEC, permet de découvrir une galerie de portraits d'artistes devenus des figures essentielles de la création contemporaine, parmi lesquels Russell Banks, Nina Berberova, Paul Auster, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas..."

Arturo Patten's archives are preserved at IMEC; the Web site for IMEC is

http://www.imec-archives.com/

Grazie per le informazioni e i links molto utili.

Thank you for your information and useful links.

Michele