IERI OGGI MILANO

The exhibition includes 170 photographs and videos by 43 Italian and foreign authors (Giampietro Agostini, Marina Ballo Charmet, Olivo Barbieri, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Gabriele Basilico, Luca Campigotto, Vincenzo Castella, Mario Cattaneo, Carla Cerati, Giovanni Chiaramonte, Cesare Colombo, John Davies, Attilio Del Comune, Paola De Pietri, Paola Di Bello, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Emilio Frisia, Moreno Gentili, Paolo Gioli, Paul Graham, Guido Guidi, Giovanni Hänninen, Mimmo Jodice, Uliano Lucas, Tancredi Mangano, Paola Mattioli, Gianfranco Mazzocchi, Paolo Monti, Toni Nicolini, Enzo Nocera, Federico Patellani, Tino Petrelli, Bernard Plossu, Pietro Privitera, Francesco Radino, Achille Sacconi, Beat Streuli, Thomas Struth, Pio Tarantini, Alessandro Vicario, Massimo Vitali, Manfred Willmann, Giovanni Ziliani ) drawn from 12 photography collections, dating from World War II to the present. Dedicated to the transformation of the city urbanistically (the post-war period, the suburbs, factories, the contemporary construction sites of a city that is becoming a metropolis), socio-economically (working-class Milan, families, young people, the bourgeoisie) and culturally (the worlds of art, design, architecture, film), the exhibition is divided into six thematic and chronological sections. The variety of approaches (classic reportage, architectural and landscape photography, studio and contextual portraiture) makes it possible to explore the different languages and purposes of photography, from documentation to artistic composition.
Giampietro Agostini (Borgo Valsugana-Trento, 1960) has been working for years on the photography of architecture and man-made and natural landscapes, as well as the relationship between man and the environment in which he lives, through both his personal artistic enquiry and participation in public patronage projects.
Marina Ballo Charmet (Milan, 1952), an artist who trained in philosophy and psychoanalysis, known in Italy and Europe, has worked for years with photography and video, directing a peripheral and indirect gaze at the landscape, ordinary everyday objects and the human figure.
Olivo Barbieri (Carpi-Modena, 1954) studied at DAMS in Bologna and has been taking photographs since the early ‘70s. He focuses on the urban landscape and architecture, often shooting at night. For many years he has been known on the international scene for his photographs and videos of the world’s great cities shot from a helicopter.
Gabriele Basilico (Milan, 1944-2013), an architect by training, is one of the greatest contemporary Italian photographers and one of the best known internationally. Since the mid-‘70s he has devoted his tireless and methodical research to the city as a complex organism and to the transformations of the post-industrial landscape.
Gianni Berengo Gardin (Santa Margherita Ligure-Genoa, 1930) is one of the most renowned European photographers. Master of social narrative and specialist in landscape and architectural photography, he has produced an enormous body of work and an extraordinary number of books.
Luca Campigotto (Venice, 1962) after graduating in history, he specialized in landscape and architectural photography, making trips to Africa, South America, North America and Asia. His interests range from the latest metropolitan architecture to that of the ancient world.
Vincenzo Castella (Naples, 1952) after studying anthropology, he became a photographer in the mid-‘70s. He studies industrial facilities, the metropolis, the landscape in transformation, the contaminations taking place in cities and new urban narratives.
Mario Cattaneo (Milan, 1916 – India, 2004) is a photographer belonging to that generation who, in the second half of the 20th century, found in amateur photography clubs a forum of expression and debate. His work deals with social reportage, lifestyle and portraiture.
Carla Cerati (Bergamo, 1926 - Milano, 2016) has been a writer and photographer since the early ‘60s. An important exponent of the Italian school of reportage, after having devoted herself to the theater, she turned her critical eye to fundamental issues of society, politics, customs and culture.
Giovanni Chiaramonte (Varese, 1948) is one of the most important exponents of the Italian landscape school. In addition to being a photographer, he is a teacher, photography scholar, curator and publisher, activities through which he has greatly enlivened Italian photographic culture.
Cesare Colombo (Milan, 1935-2016) is a social and industrial photographer, but also a researcher and scholar of Italian photography. Active since the mid-‘50s, his many exhibitions and publications constitute an important contribution to historical research and our understanding of Italian society through photography.
John Davies (Sedgefield, UK, 1949), internationally renowned exponent of documentarism, he is one of Europe's leading photographers. Since the mid-‘70s he has focused on the natural, rural and urban landscapes, mainly using the method of the panoramic view.
Attilio Del Comune (Mantova, 1928 - Milan, 2000) is a well-known industrial and advertising photographer, and above all a portraitist. For years he photographed personalities from the worlds of economics, art, culture and music, both inside the studio and out.
Paola De Pietri (Reggio Emilia, 1960) studied at DAMS in Bologna and then devoted herself to photography. Her work, recognized at the European level, is dedicated to the theme of change and humanity's relationship with natural and man-made environments.
Paola Di Bello (Naples, 1961), lecturer and chair of the Master of Photography program at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, she works with photography and video. Known at the European level, she investigates the language of mechanical images and the urban landscape, and is involved in public art projects.
Gilbert Fastenaekens (Brussels, Belgium, 1955), a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, is dedicated to landscape and architectural photography. In the second half of the ‘80s he took part in the DATAR Photographic Mission.
Peter Fischli & David Weiss (Zurich, Switzerland, 1946-2012; 1952) are among the most important photographers, sculptors and filmmakers on the international stage. They began working together since the late ‘70s, investigating the banalities of everyday life, landscapes and objects with an ironic eye.
Emilio Frisia (Merate-Lecco, 1924 - Milan, 2004), after studying the humanities, dedicated himself to journalism, social and landscape photography, drawing, and teaching photography at the Humane Society, the Institute of St. Catherine of Siena in Milan and the State Institute of Art in Monza.
Moreno Gentili (Como, 1960), photographer, designer, author and screenwriter, his enquiry ranges from landscape to social commentary, addressing issues such as ecology, contemporary technology, history and environmental protection with a strong critical voice.
Paolo Gioli (Sarzano-Rovigo, 1942), among the most original and profound painters, filmmakers and photographers at the international level, has been working for years on issues of the body, the face and human identity, experimenting incessantly with the materials of photography and film, always inventing new visual codes.
Paul Graham (Stafford, UK, 1956) is an innovator of contemporary British photography and an renowned artist on the international scene. His work examines the landscape and the existential states of modern man.
Guido Guidi (Cesena, 1941), who worked for years at the IAUV – Architecture Institute of Venice – is respected internationally as a master landscape photographer. Researcher, professor and subtle investigator of pictorial space, he has been active since the late ‘60s.
Giovanni Hänninen (Helsinki, Finland, 1976), an engineer by training, is a lecturer in architectural photography at the Milan Politecnico and dedicates his photographic research, conducted for public and private institutions, to contemporary urban development.
Mimmo Jodice (Naples, 1934), for years a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and reference point for the culture of the South, is a master of Italian photography recognized worldwide. He studies landscape, historic and contemporary architecture and the myths of classical antiquity and the Mediterranean.
Uliano Lucas (Milan, 1942) is a leading Italian photojournalist. An astute investigator of the problems of contemporary society and scholar of the history of reportage, he has worked for major newspapers and volunteer organizations, combining his profession with social engagement.
Tancredi Mangano (Lisieux, France, 1969), engraver, photographer and lecturer, is a refined artist who has always placed the theme of nature, seen in its original integrity but also transformed by man-made structures, at the center of his enquiry.
Paola Mattioli (Milan, 1948), philosopher by training, she began doing photography during university and became an assistant to Ugo Mulas. Mainly a portraitist but also a social photographer, she is interested in the image of women and, in parallel, in the languages of photography itself.
Gianfranco Mazzocchi (Redavalle-Pavia, 1935), photographer and lecturer, was coordinator of photography courses for the Humane Society, then for the Centro Riccardo Bauer, from 1973 to 1994. He delicately explored the world of school, Milanese society and everyday life in the Oltrepò Pavese.
Paolo Monti (Novara, 1908 - Milan, 1982) was a great master of 20th-century Italian photography. Teacher as well as photographer, esteemed collaborator of art historians and architects, his work addressed the natural landscape, architecture, the historic centers of Italian cities and works of art.
Toni Nicolini (Milan, 1935-2012), a sensitive and civic-minded photographer, created social and urban reportage on Italian and foreign cities, collaborating with the Italian Touring Club, the Fondazione Corrente and Bocconi University of Milan.
Enzo Nocera (Milan, 1944 - 1993), industrial photographer, reporter and above all portraitist, documented the world of work and Milanese society between the '70s and ‘90s. He is known and loved for having revived and relaunched the studio portrait staged in a deliberately classical way.
Federico Patellani (Monza, 1911 - Milan, 1977) was one of the masters of Italian photojournalism, recognized throughout Europe. A cultured and refined narrator, he bore witness to postwar Italy and its economic recovery, customs and cultural life, also working in film.
Tino Petrelli (Fontanafredda-Pordenone, 1922 - Piacenza, 2001) was one of the great Italian photojournalists. Active since the late ‘30s with the Publifoto agency, he documented the major issues of Italian society, such as WWII, the reconstruction, the economic boom and the ‘Southern question’.
Bernard Plossu (Da Lat, Vietnam, 1945), one of the most important contemporary French photographers, is a traveler and a narrator of landscapes and people in Europe, USA, Mexico, Africa, with a distinctively spontaneous language.
Pietro Privitera (Milan, 1953), after studying philosophy, dedicated himself to theater photography, Polaroid experimentation and fashion photography, supplementing his artistic production with the study of history and the language of images.
Francesco Radino (Bagno a Ripoli-Florence, 1947) took up photography after studying sociology. One of the most important contemporary Italian photographers, he explores industry, cities, objects, animals and nature, looking for human stories in the landscape.
Achille Sacconi (Treviso, 1927), architect and urban planner, was the coordinator of the Architectural and Environmental Heritage project for the Province of Milan, as well as the Space Archive project. As a photographer, he examines the man-made landscape, architecture and nature.
Beat Streuli (Altdorf, Switzerland, 1957) is a well-known artist on the international scene whose work encompasses photography, video, multimedia installations and public art. He has worked for years on the flow of pedestrian traffic on the streets of the world’s great metropolises.
Thomas Struth (Geldern am Niederrhein, Germany, 1954), one of the most famous exponents of the Düsseldorf School, is an artist of great international prestige. His work focuses on landscape, architecture, museums, nature and portraiture.
Pio Tarantini (Torchiarolo-Lecce, 1950) studied political science and began working in photography and film in the early '70s. He explores the contemporary landscape, and for many years has been developing a personal project on the theme of memory and motion in the photographic image.
Alessandro Vicario (Modena, 1968), photographer and journalist, chooses the urban environment and domestic interiors saturated with memories as his subjects, using the image as a tool for the investigation of the signs and traces of human habitation.
Massimo Vitali (Como, 1944) is one of the most internationally renowned photographers. Photojournalist during the '70s and film and television cinematographer in the' 80s, he later created views of the contemporary landscape densely inhabited by human figures.
Manfred Willmann (Graz, Austria, 1952) is internationally known both as a photographer and as a cultural operator. Since 1980 he has been the editor of the prestigious magazine Camera Austria. He works on the languages and narrative structures of photography.
Giovanni Ziliani (Canneto-Mantova, 1943), a painter by training, he combines experimentation with photographic languages with teaching. A scholar of the theme of time in photography, he has done in-depth studies on the techniques of montage and blurring.
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