Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of Italy’s greatest 20th-century photographers, leaves us at the age of 94.
Born in Santa Margherita Ligure in 1930, Berengo Gardin began to devote himself to photography in the early 1950s.
His photography has always stood out for its profound honesty and authenticity. Shunning any form of alteration, his images stand as genuine testimonies of the times, capable not only of documenting but also of actively participating in the reality they represent. His shots, always spontaneous, place the human being at the center of living, concrete social contexts. Throughout his long career, Berengo Gardin has built a visual archive of extraordinary value, unique in the history of Italian photography and with international relevance. His approach, which he himself liked to call “artisanal,” has become the hallmark of his style. Indeed, he always described himself as “a photographer-photographer,” claiming the role of image craftsman rather than artist.
Considered an undisputed master of black and white, he has always been an ardent advocate of traditional photographic printing, valuing shots that tell the story of everyday life. An author of reportage and social surveys, he has traversed nearly seventy years of our country’s history, returning to us, through his lens, an authentic Italy from the postwar period to the present.
Among his best-known works are the shots dedicated to Venice; his is the project on the Great Ships in 2013. He then represented the workers’ struggles in Milan, social and cultural evolutions in almost every region of Italy. Also famous are the shots at the Monfalcone Shipyards and those in psychiatric hospitals, documenting conditions in Italian psychiatric institutions before the 1978 Basaglia law.
With his passing, Italy loses an indispensable voice in postwar photography.
“With Gianni Berengo Gardin we lose an undisputed master of photography. An authentic explorer who knew how to tell the human and nature in all corners of the earth. His gaze illuminated the history of the 20th century,” said Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli.
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| Farewell to Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of the greatest authors of Italian photography, master of black and white |
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