"The Italians", Bruno Barbey

11/05/2023 - 02/07/2023

Académie des beaux-arts 
23, quai de Conti 
 
75006 Paris

www.academiedesbeauxarts.fr/   

 
In 1962, 21-year-old Bruno Barbey decided to travel around Italy with the idea of "capturing the spirit of a nation through images" and creating a portrait of its inhabitants. At the dawn of the 1960s, the trauma of the war was beginning to fade, while the dream of a new Italy was emerging. It is no longer quite the one portrayed by the neo-realist filmmakers. People began to believe in the "economic miracle" and Bruno Barbey was one of the first to record this moment of historical transition. From North to South, from East to West, he photographed all social classes: from ragazzi to aristocrats, including nuns, beggars, prostitutes... His lucid but always benevolent gaze captured a changing reality and shed new light on these Italians, who were so close and yet so far away.
This exhibition presents about sixty prints chosen personally by Bruno Barbey shortly before his death.