by Redazione 14/10/2026
Categories: Exhibitions / Disclaimer
Starting October 6, Studio Bandera’s Milan office will host “People Around,” an exhibition curated by Marianna Santoni featuring images taken by photographer Roberto Lugano from 2016 to 2026 in various cities around the world. This is the third installment of the project through which Studio Bandera brings art into its professional spaces.
Studio Bandera presents *People Around*, a photography exhibition by Roberto Lugano curated by Marianna Santoni, at its Milan headquarters. The project brings together images taken by the photographer from 2016 to 2026 in various cities around the world and explores everyday presences, chance encounters, and unexpected relationships that can emerge in the public space of the street. The exhibition, which opened on October 6, 2026, at Studio Bandera’s headquarters at Via Carlo Maria Martini 1, marks the third chapter in the initiative launched by the Studio in 2023 to bring artistic research into the workplace.
Lugano’s photographs stemfrom observations of urban life. The people portrayed are waiting, walking, brushing past one another, or sharing the same frame for just a few moments, unaware of the camera’s presence. These are therefore not staged scenes or posed subjects: the photographer walks the streets and captures chance moments, analogies, and paradoxes that take on new meaning through the photographic composition. The locations where the images were taken are not always immediately recognizable, because in Lugano’s work, the identity of the space takes a back seat to the relationships that emerge within the image.
The title *People Around* focuses attention precisely on the people who traverse the urban space daily and on the situations that can be captured through prolonged observation. Chance is one element of the project, but it is complemented by the ability to wait and recognize the moment when seemingly unrelated elements come together within the same frame. It is in this unexpected juxtaposition that the photograph offers a new way of interpreting the scene.
“For me, photography is the simplest way to stay connected to the world we move through,” says the artist.
Marianna Santoni’s curation extends this principle to the construction of the exhibition itself. The photographs are presented through juxtapositions, diptychs, and triptychs, creating relationships not only between the individual images but also with the spaces of Studio Bandera. The project was, in fact, conceived in relation to the spaces of the Milan office, including hallways, meeting rooms, passageways, and waiting areas. The different functions of the spaces, the viewpoints, and the lighting conditions all contributed to defining the exhibition sequence.
The exhibition also brings together a body of work developed over the course of ten years, across different cities and using various photographic equipment. In this context, the sequence of the works and the post-production interventions play a role in creating greater visual coherence, connecting photographs taken under different circumstances and in different contexts.
Marianna Santoni, a photographer, author, and consultant specializing in digital imaging, combines her professional work with teaching and collaborations with major international brands. She taught at ISIA in Urbino for over fifteen years and has published more than seventy books, including the world’s first guide dedicated to Lightroom, commissioned by Adobe. Roberto Lugano’s career has also spanned various professional fields. A certified public accountant and statutory auditor for over thirty years, as well as an author and trainer, Lugano simultaneously pursues reportage and street photography. His work has also been selected twice as a finalist for the Siena International Photo Awards.
“People Around” thus connects Lugano’s photographic exploration with a professional context that, through Studio Bandera’s project, also serves as an exhibition space. The exhibition is, in fact, the third installment in a program dedicated to integrating art into the workplace. The series began in 2023 with *Art in Transition*, a project featuring works by Stefano Bombardieri, and continued with *Orbite* nd *Aggiunte* by Felice Martinelli. With the Lugano exhibition, photography joins sculpture, expanding the artistic languages through which Studio Bandera explores the relationship between art, culture, and the professional world.
Statements
“I like that these works inhabit a workplace, where they can be encountered even by chance, during the course of the day or while waiting for a meeting,” says Marianna Santoni. “Art, outside of traditional art spaces, often has a different effect, and on occasions like this, it returns to being what it probably should always be: part of life.”
“Working in an environment dotted with works of art not only enhances the quality of the workspace but also nourishes the mind and spirit, allowing one to explore new worldviews and develop a deeper sensitivity,” says Arrigo Bandera, founder and founding partner.
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