13 June 2013

“My work is not at all artistic and I don’t care about being regarded as an artist. The engagement of the photographer should not be artistic, but social and civil.” Over the years, It has fallen to me to write about Gianni Berengo Gardin on more than one occasion. I have browsed through part of the immense archives in his studio: from the Venice Lido to Tuscany, from lunatic asylums to factories. Once we even worked together on documenting what goes on behind the scenes at a première at La Scala. The appointment was at the former Ansaldo workshops, where they were finishing the scenery. We were both on time. I was a bit nervous, but above all curious. He had a tiny Leica round his neck. Stagehands at work. Monumental wooden horses. Enormous paper backdrops. “What do you want me to photograph?” A way of presenting himself to the world. A lesson of life rather than of looking. A memory. Art, at times, is in the eyes of the observer. Engagement is grace.

Gianni Berengo Gardin. Storie di un fotografo
Palazzo Reale
A cura di Denis Curti
Milano
14 giugno – 8 settembre

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Milano, 1959. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Milano, 1986. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Firenze, campo nomade, 1993. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Milano, 2005. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Lido di Venezia, 1959. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Venezia, 1959. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Milano, anni Settanta. © Gianni Berengo Gardin/Contrasto