I lavori di Nino Migliori sono il frutto di una costante e continua riflessione sulla fotografia i cui risultati sono spesso innovativi sia a livello di tecniche che di linguaggi che di tematiche.
Il loro significato è così denso che a tutto diritto possono definirsi polisemantici per cui potrebbe sembrare limitante la griglia di interpretazione che viene fornita, ma tale lettura si propone come possibilità di analisi, alcune opere possono, infatti, rientrare in altre serie.

Cellogram

Image obtained using some pieces of colored cellophane and opaque or transparent paper, placed between two glasses, fixed by frames and used as a classic negative, or reproduced directly on the paper. Cellophane overlaps and different filtering of lights produce different color densities and spatialities.

Photogram

It is obtained by placing pieces of cellophane or other semi-transparent material, directly on photographic paper. By operating several multiple exposures and rotating the material used, images with different thicknesses and depths are obtained. The Space Photogram (1952) is obtained by pouring paint on a glass using the dripping technique. The plate is printed directly on sensitive paper, subsequently solarized and reprinted on another paper as a contact print.

Polarigram

Technique developed in 1976. This is a new interpretation of the cellogram reproduced through polarized lenses. In this case, the transparent, colorless cellophane is placed between two by polarized lenses which, when properly rotated, give rise to chromatism.

Pyrogram

It is realized by burning photographic film with any heat source; the varying duration and intensity of the intervention and the manual nature of the action give rise to heterogeneous outcomes. The negatives thus manipulated are then used like any negative.

Stenopeogram

The author takes up the ancient technique of stenopeoscopy. It is the image obtained through the pinhole. A process that utilizes the darkroom principle for image reproduction and in which the camera uses a pinhole: a simple hole positioned in the center of one side of the camera with the function of a lens.

Oxidations

Oxidation (ossidzione) is a fundamental moment in photographic procedure: it is a chemical reaction, a transformation that makes printing on paper possible. The image comes from acting of the developing and fixing acids in contact with the silver salts on the photographic paper The action can be left “free” by sliding the liquids by moving or tilting the sheet, or brushes, spatulas, objects used as swabs can be used. It is one of the research that accompanies, in successive periods the author's artistic way, such as Carte ossidate (Oxidized papers) and Mummy's Darling series. In 2010, with the series Sunshadows - In the sunlight, he developed a further evolution of this process.

Lucigram

Both are true and proper writing of light. Simply use a punctiform light torch and move the light beam closer or further away from the sensitive paper, moving it more or less quickly, then filter it through a mask. This produces signs of density and dimension linked to the concept of space-time.

Clichè-verre and Erasure

Technique adopted since 1950. The photographer makes cuts and scratches on an unimpressed photographic plate or on a piece of film, whether the gelatin is still wet, with a tip or a razor blade: the greater or lesser pressure of the gesture produces more or less intense graffiti. Diversity in pressure causes the outcropping or overlapping of layers. When the same operation is performed on an already impressed photographic material the author performs a deletion, a denial of the image. These works are called Cancellazioni, Erasures.

Polaroid

interventions on Polaroid overturn the concept of instantaneity of the reproductive process. The initial experience was expressed in Splits Strappi (1976) and in the performance Blue backbeat Controtempo blu (1977). In the 1980s he delved into the mechanism and the possibilities of intervention, starting with Videografie (1980). Polapressures, obtained by making marks, presses, deletions, with spatulas and pointed objects, is an operation carried out during the development phase on the Polaroid image that is emerging. The time of manipulation influences both the chromaticism and the composition. To this phase belong: Italian Sketchbook (since 1984), a journey into well-known and familiar places, Edenflowers (since 1984), the series “Imagined Landscapes” as Morandi's Places I luoghi di Morandi (1985a reading of the landscapes painted by the Bolognese master, New York (1986), In 1991 Polaroid made available a large device that allowed the creation of 50x60 format photographs and carried out various projects including Inside-Outside, inserting plexiglass solids inside the machine and in front of the lens, Dream toys (2003) toys captured in New York shops, Around a designed jungle Intorno a una jungla progettata (2009), interpretation of the garden designed by Ludwig Winter in Borgo Storico Seghetti Panichi. Polaori, created towards the end of the 1980s, are obtained by opening into two parts a polapressure, one is the background that holds the material that forms the image, defined by Migliori sinopia, with a specific reference to painting, the other is the transparent one on which a gold background is applied. Visually very similar to a miniature which vibrates according to the incidence of light creating a play of reflections, conceptually it is the fulfillment of the alchemical opus. In 1991 Polaroid made available a large device that allowed the creation of 50x60 format photographs so Migliori carried out various projects including Inside-Outside, inserting plexiglass solids inside the camera and in front of the lens. In the 1990s, using a device for obtaining and printing still images, used mainly in medical diagnostics, he created the Freeze-frames series, where he "creatively" intervened in the critical debate on the veracity and manipulation of photography. Since 1998 he approached the digital medium by scanning sinopias and realizes Transfigurations Trasfigurazioni The almost colorless surface brings into latency the full range of coloristic possibilities that give rise to imaginative figurations, transfigurations as the title of the series states.

Walls and Torn Posters

The research on Walls, which began in the late 1940s, continued for about thirty years. The investigation develops along three main lines of research: the degraded wall as a representation of the passage of time; the wall as a testimony to human gesture; the wall as a space of the imaginary and finally as a place of the unconscious, a support and visualization of ideas and feelings that humans leave on the walls of the city as if it were a public diary. “I took photos of walls because I was interested in man, it is the only documentation of mankind's past from the caves of Altamira to the graffiti or writings on the walls of Pompeii. The man in front of the walls disinhibits himself, whether he uses a coin, a key to scratch or a piece of chalk or a spray can, frees his unconscious, his gestures and is himself.”

Portraits

Some of the research that constitutes Migliori's work could be recognized by analyzing the series of portraits such as those of contemporary artists, from the black and white ones, to the portrait set, to Homages/Outrages Omaggi/Oltraggi. In the 1970s they became analyses of self-representation, studies of role-playing on the public stage, or analyses of the gestures of a television character, as in the series TV sequences Sequenze TV. The denial of the presumed truth of representation is accompanied by the deconstruction of visual language in erased, duplicated or fragmented portraits, created using his contemporary experimental research, from interventions on Polaroids in the 1980s and 1990s, as in Quelli della notte (1985), to recent matchlight portraits of recent years. Self-portraits deserve a separate chapter, from the 1949 self-portraits, double oxidations on a plate, to Fingerprints Impronte the 1955 oxidation on film which experiment with the value of the print in the process of identity recognition, which begins in the Lascaux caves. Portraits and self-portraits, however, are always a verification of the potential of the medium, from the conceptual sequence of The Expanded Time Il tempo dilatato (1974-76), to the self-portrait with a Widelux camera (1978).

Realisms

Member of the Circolo Fotografico Bolognese, he took part in the debate between contemplative photography linked to high tones à la Cavalli, as in the series “ Fiera di Milano “ of which l’ Architetto is part, chosen as the most beautiful Italian photo of 1954, and the more intimate low tones à la Monti, as in Sera d'estate or Notturno dall'Asinelli. Migliori practices both manners as style exercises while providing original and personal interpretations. The so-called “neorealist“ series, People of Emilia, People of the North, People of the South and People of the Delta, are an expression of the strong desire to know deep down not only the “people“ of his native region, but that of the entire peninsula. This is proposed with a very personal gaze starting from the structure, made up of a plurality of planes that dilate the two-dimensional space of photographic transcription, from the presence of “frames” that delimit the scene and the characters to metaphorically underline the photographer’s choice, from metalinguistic subtleties “as in cases where the emphasis is placed on the act of looking itself”. Landscape photographs and urban reportage present a polymorphic gaze. Urban reportage in the 1950s developed the theme of signs and spots on walls, or showed removed aspects of our cities. The gaze was turned to the margins, to the shapeless paths as in Periferia of 1958. In the same years he created works attributable to contemporary research on high tones (high key) and low tones (low key), participating in the numerous competitions of the time.

Bleaching

These are actions on C-prints. Using various chemicals, such as bleach and hydrochloric acid, the image is discolored or erased. In fact, the duly addressed and calibrated acids whiten the photograph by progressively removing the three RGB color layers that make up the chromaticism until the extreme zeroing.