Images of a world that no longer exists.
In the Parisian exhibition dedicated to the French-Moroccan photographer Bruno Barbey, at the Institut de France (Academie des Beaux Arts), until next July 2, here is "Les Italiens", a perfect synthesis of his long work in Italy in the mid-1900s Sixties, with an eye to a society suspended between ancient traditions and an economic boom. There is also Cagliari, in a shot that is part of the extensive report made in 1964 in which Barbey, an inexhaustible and curious artist and traveller, follows the procession in honor of Sant'Efisio and moves to the Nuoro area with the will, repeatedly expressed , to "document for posterity, traditions and cultures that are rapidly disappearing due to changing consumer attitudes". Two years earlier, on behalf of Vogue, Henri Cartier Bresson had instead arrived on the island, another legend of the art of photography.
I shoot it
In the shot, included in the exhibition at the Institut de France, a temple of French culture commissioned by Giulio Mazzarino, there is the image of a shoe shiner at work under the arcades in via Roma. In those sixties, full of confidence, it was still an activity that could generate income. The grim face of the customer appears, wearing an elegant suit. On the head a Borsalino probably purchased in the Martello hat shop in nearby via Sassari. He has sunglasses that suggest a day bathed in light. In the foreground, a passer-by looking towards the photographer's lens. In evidence is the brand of the detergent, used for cleaning, which a few years later will be associated with the basketball team which with Sutter and Ferello will achieve great results in the top league. The shoe shiner is seen from behind, engaged in his work with dignity and dedication. Barbey, who died in 2020 at the age of 79, was part of the glorious Magnum team. In addition to immortalizing Sardinia and Italy, between people and urban and rural contexts, he narrated the French May, the Six Day War in the Middle East, the conflict in Vietnam, Poland during the Solidarity era and the war in Iraq in the early 1990s. In the belief that " photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world".
