The Riace Bronzes, published by 5 Continents Editions in 2022, is devoted to two rare surviving ancient bronze statues now preserved at the National Archaeological Museum in Reggio Calabria. Conceived to mark the fiftieth anniversary of their discovery in August 1972, the book places Luigi Spina’s photographic research in dialogue with texts by Carmelo Malacrino, director of the museum. It is both a study of celebrated Classical sculpture and a considered act of looking at how sculpture becomes known through photography.
Spina develops a sustained visual narrative around the two figures, identified as A and B, repeatedly bringing them into comparison. Rather than treating the statues as isolated icons, the sequence attends to their physical presence: the differing bodies, surfaces, stances, and the three-dimensional character that a photographic image can easily flatten. This comparative structure gives the book its particular discipline. It asks the viewer to remain with the works long enough for distinctions, correspondences, and the material intelligence of their making to emerge.
Malacrino’s accompanying account extends the scope beyond formal appreciation. It follows the Bronzes from their underwater discovery through restoration and exhibition, while considering their place within ancient Greek art, the practices of Classical workshops, and their continuing significance in contemporary culture. The result joins visual concentration with archaeological and historical context, without reducing the sculptures to either textbook objects or purely photographic subjects.
With 76 colour illustrations, a 112-page hardcover format, and a generous 24 × 33.5 cm scale, the volume is shaped for sustained study. Collectors attentive to books on sculpture will find here a precise collaboration between photographic interpretation and scholarly commentary, focused on two works whose fame can encourage hurried recognition. The Riace Bronzes instead makes comparison, attention, and the problem of translating three-dimensional form into printed images its central subjects.
