Polaroids and more
29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery in Milan will host the exhibition “Polaroids and More” by renowned fashion photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri, 2018 Lucie Awards Honoree for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion.
Curated by Giovanni Pelloso, this special exhibition traces Gian Paolo Barbieri’s use of instant photography and comprises more than 120 Polaroid photographs never exhibited before, taken over the last 30 years.
A first series of portraits and figure studies depicts the world of fashion and its protagonists, offering an exciting and insightful behind-the-scenes perspective. According to Barbieri, fashion photography has to reflect a scene, a performance, a theatre, as close to reality as possible. It has to channel beauty, metaphor, and reality. Standing at the center of that scene is a woman, often animated by a playful, irreverent irony—a woman who is able to convey an intriguing sense of ambiguity and mystery, which, on the other hand, spares her from a miserable reduction to an object.
Pictured as she is, this woman is no myth. It’s a “real” picture and reflects Barbieri’s profound belief: a woman’s true essence is a secret, determined to remain so. This view explains Barbieri’s admiration for women’s everlasting yet ever-changing beauty, as well as his awareness of how rich and full of infinite metamorphosis the female personality is.
Barbieri’s shots are stunning and magical, dreamlike and playful, ironic and theatrical—truly seducing images. The plain surface of the picture transforms into a “seducing object,” an exciting invitation to imagine and fantasize. A whole territory full of mysteries, ready for the eye to explore and discover.
Viewers can peek behind the lens to see the making of fashion photography in Gian Paolo Barbieri’s work, which is able to describe the most human side of his subjects, be they iconic top models or Polynesian natives. A second body of work is dedicated to indigenous people in their natural environment, captivating nudes often conceived as preparatory studies, and flowers—the great passion of the artist.
Sixty years before smartphones and Instagram, Gian Paolo Barbieri was using his Polaroid camera to capture on-the-spot impressions from life that he could later incorporate into his art. Many of these small, intimate photographs convey tenderness and vulnerability; others depict toughness and immediacy. Unlike the highly crafted images Barbieri staged in the studio and became famous for, these disarming pictures are marked by spontaneity and invention. Together, they offer insight into the artist’s remarkable career.
Another major preview will be a selection of new works inspired by William Shakespeare, which Barbieri has been working on for about three years, in the fourth centenary of his death: «As I’ve always liked to do,» Barbieri says, «drawing on the past and looking to the future.»
Curated by 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery.